Beyond the Badge
by Random Inspiration
Summary: Fillmore and Ingrid are now students at Z High School.  They work to solve a case concerning the National Safety Patrol Convention and the very integrity of the safety patrol.  Along the way, they learn just how deep their bond has grown.
1. Mark of the Pentagon

**Title: ****Beyond the Badge**

**Summary: **_**Fillmore and Ingrid are now students at Z High School. They work to solve a case concerning the National Safety Patrol Convention and the very integrity of the safety patrol. Along the way, they learn just how deep their bond has grown since their days at X Middle School.**_

**Disclaimer: **_**Fillmore is the creation of Disney. I don't own it. Nuff said.**_

**Author's Note: Read, enjoy, and please review! Reviews that say you like it are nice, but reviews that say ****why**** you like it are better. Chapter by chapter reviews that convey the emotions you felt as you read certain parts of the chapter are very helpful too.**

**I also wanted to include a big Thank You for WondaGal who was my Beta for this story.**

* * *

**Act One: Mark of the Pentagon**

The wind ominously howled outside Z High School as five hooded individuals gathered around the pentagon table in the middle of a room. As each one sat down, they picked up the hockey mask in front of their seat, put it on, and removed their hoods. The one who had gathered this group spoke.

"Greetings my comrades, as you can tell each of these masks has a device which will disguise our voices when we speak. Until now I have only communicated with you through letters, but with these masks complete we can start meeting in person to speed up the plan. Each of you has an important part to play, and when we succeed, the entire structure of the safety patrol will be powerless to stop us."

One of the other members of the table interrupted, "so how are we gonna refer to each other. You don't want us to know each other in case one of us gets busted, but we ain't gonna get nowhere fast that way."

"Simple, I will be known as Zero. You shall be known as One. The lady next you shall be Two. The other gentleman next to her will be Three and our primary financier shall be known as Four. Is that simple enough for you?"

"Sounds good sunshine," replied Number One. After a pause, he said, "Although I already know number two, how can I trust these others."

Before tensions got too high over the slight, Zero replied, "Because we all share a common goal. Every scheme you have tried eventually went afoul because of the safety patrol. While we will personally enjoy power that would come with the demise of the safety patrol, there is another part of this plan that gives us a second common goal. It is a challenge that we will all relish for our own individual reasons."

"Your letters stated nothing about this second goal," replied Three.

Zero retorted," I figured it would be a pleasant surprise. Something all those around me at this table would enjoy. A little bit of revenge."

"So just get on with it already," said Two.

"When this plan succeeds, this entire school will witness the downfall of Officer Cornelius Fillmore." After Zero said this, all those around him grinned mischievously behind their hockey masks. Zero lifted up a bottle of soda as his said, "to the rise of our power and the downfall of Cornelius Fillmore." The others raised their bottles and joined Zero in toasting to their upcoming plan.

* * *

It was the first day of the new school year as Fillmore strolled into the Safety Patrol Headquarters at Z High School. After he had hung up his leather coat, he walked to his desk at the back of the room. He saw a smirk on Ingrid's face as he sat down at his desk. "First day back and you're already got one of those looks. What's up?"

"Remember last year when Principal Malick and Vice Principal Probst announced that they were retiring?" Ingrid replied.

"Yeah, Superintendent Gimple is going to introduce the new Principal and Vice Principal today," Fillmore responded.

"Well, I saw some faces in the hallway and have a hunch as to who are going to be introduced."

Before Fillmore could reply, Vallejo shouted from the entrance to the Safety Patrol Headquarters, "Fillmore. Third. Let's move, the assembly starts in five minutes."

* * *

School Superintendent Gimple walked up to the microphone and addressed the assembly. "Student and faculty, as you known after many years of service Principal Malick and Vice Principal Probst retired. After a thorough search, we have found two very qualified candidates to lead Z High School for many years to come. Without further ado, I present to you Principal Folsom and Vice Principal Raycliff."

Principal Folsom walked up to the podium and started to give her inauguration address, saying, "Some of you know me from going to X Middle School…"

As Folsom spoke, at the Safety Patrol Watch Station Fillmore looked over at his partner and said, "Well this year just got more interesting."

Ingrid replied, "You sound so thrilled Fillmore. Looking forward to having constant pressure on every major case again?"

After chuckling Fillmore replied, "What's that saying? The more things change the more they stay the same."

"Yeah, it's something like that," responded Ingrid.

* * *

_A Week Later_

"You ready Frank?"

"Ready when you are Vallejo. The comic book counterfeit ring has their hideout in Art Studio F. Hard to believe three guys could have flooded the comic book market this much."

"Well either way it ends now. I've got the warrant from student council so let's do this," Vallejo responded. Frank Bishop and Horatio Vallejo headed down the hallway until they reached Studio F. Vallejo quickly opened the door. In the middle of the room were Biggie Shotwell, and two artists Cyrus and Josh. Cyrus and Josh were copying a comic book and Biggie was packing completed forgeries into a box. "Your comic book ring is toast," Vallejo said. He added, "I like you three to come with us." While Biggie submitted due to not wanting to run, Cyrus and Josh started to run to the back of the room. Frank gave chase and quickly caught Josh, but Cyrus was able to climb out the back window.

Frank pulled his walkie-talkie, "Frank Bishop to any safety patrollers near Art Studio F. We have a fugitive, Cyrus Grant on the run; requesting back-up."

Anza answered, "You can cancel that request Frank. Turns out O'Farrell tripped into your fugitive about five feet from the Studio's window. Tehama and I were on our way because Danny said he needed help with something and saw it happen."

Tehama chimed in on her talkie, "And judging by how Mr. Cyrus Grant is stuck to O'Farrell, I'd say Danny had some issues with the super glue."

Vallejo rolled his eyes before saying, "We will just meet you all back at the north office."

By the time Vallejo and Frank had gotten back to the office, O'Farrell was at his desk and Cyrus was in the holding room. Frank asked, "How did you get him unstuck so fast?"

Chiming in from the back of the room, Ingrid said, "previous experience. My dad got stuck to a classroom skeleton during one of his head cold episodes. Ariella and I did some experimenting to get dad loose. I just happened to remember the formula of the substance we made. It was a piece of cake."

"Unfortunately there's some bad news," Fillmore added from beside Ingrid.

"Hold on a second," said Vallejo before taking Biggie and Josh into the holding room. Coming back out, he asked," Okay, what is it?"

"This," said Fillmore as he tossed a card onto Vallejo's desk. The card was a business card, but it only had a black pentagon stamped in the center. Fillmore continued, "It looks like this group is another one that is connected to this pentagon card. We haven't this much trouble identifying someone since Stingray back when we were at X Middle School. Even Frank has been unable to come up with anything and he's the best profiler we have on the force."

Frank added, "if only we could flush out whatever person or people are behind the organization of this pentagon group, I might get something to work with. I've only gotten stuff on all the lackeys we've been pulling in. Nothing on the big fish though."

"Yeah unfortunately, these cards are made from basic business card packets that you can buy at any office supply store and the pentagon is just a generic stamp being used with black ink pad," explained Tehama.

Vallejo rubbed the back of his neck for a few moments. Breaking the heavy silence was Anza, "well for now all we can do is keep breaking up all these rings that are popping up around Z High."

Frank added, "Anza's right. Besides Vallejo needs to get ready for the interview he has in an hour."

"That's right Vallejo, you got nominated for one of the spots in the three commissioner system Folsom wants to use for the safety patrol," said Tehama.

"Only one of the two assistant commissioner spots, although I hear guy up for the head honcho spot is one of the new transfers. He was the commissioner for his safety patrol when he was in Elementary and Middle School. He was also the commissioner at his last high school," Vallejo responded.

"Well good luck Vallejo," Frank said joyously. "I'll just go from a regular beat back to profiler specialist."

"We might just need that kind of specialized focus for this pentagon group," Vallejo responded. As Vallejo started to head out of the office, he turned around and said, "O and Fillmore. If I get this post, try to keep the repair bills down. I've enjoyed working with Frank again and not having to worry about all the headaches you make. It would be good for my ears with Folsom being principal now."

"Can't make any promises Vallejo," replied Fillmore as he chuckled with a big grin on his face.

Ingrid added, "Besides your lungs have had what, about a three year break from screaming Fillmore's name. They should be plenty rested for your upcoming term."

"Thanks Third, I think," replied Vallejo. With that, he went out the door and headed to his interview.

* * *

Early the next morning, Fillmore walked into the safety patrol office and saw Ingrid reading the Z High School Dispatch at her desk. "See anything interesting Ingrid?" Fillmore asked as he filled his hot chocolate mug.

After he walked over and sat in his desk, Ingrid replied, "You remember the National Safety Patrol Convention that is happening in two months?"

"Yeah, it was going to be hosted by a high school out in Idaho I think. About a month ago, the safety patrol there took down a tater tots smuggling ring, but destroyed the convention center during the bust."

"Apparently after Folsom was named Z High School Principal, she put in a last minute bid to host the convention since it had to be moved."

"So, you're telling me the convention is going to be held here?"

"Hmmm," Ingrid replied with a smirk as she nodded her head.

Before Fillmore could respond, his phone rang. "Fillmore." Ingrid saw Fillmore's face harden from whatever the person was saying to him on the phone. Fillmore said to the person on the phone, "Where do you want to meet?"…"I'll be there in five minutes." He hung up the phone and got up from his desk, "Ingrid, we got one."

Ingrid followed Fillmore out the door. They made their way through the halls and went outside towards the bocce ball field. As they got close to the stadium wall, Ingrid saw a familiar figure. Fillmore was the first to speak, "So Augie, what information do you have for me?"

Augie whispered back, "Remember you didn't hear this from me, but you know that group that's been using the pentagon cards?"

Ingrid replied, "We know the cards, but the safety patrol hasn't been able to find out anything about who the ringleaders are. Do you have any leads on that?"

"No," Augie replied, "but I heard some guys talking. Scooter McAllister, Colby Bosworth, and Ken Himmelman have been contacted about getting some preliminary work for a big job."

"What's the job Augie?" Fillmore asked.

"It deals with the National Safety Patrol Convention that is going to be held here in two months. A couple of days before the convention starts, some safety patrollers are bringing a new computer program that will match up safety patrollers based on their strengths and weaknesses to make better teams. Even inter-school cases would use the system because it would have every safety patroller in the nation in it. Apparently they are going to steal the program so they would know every safety patrollers strengths and weaknesses." As Augie finished, he nervously looked around to see if anyone saw him talking to Ingrid and Fillmore.

"Thanks Augie, I owe you one big time," Fillmore said before he and Ingrid started to walk back to the office.

As they walked back, Ingrid spoke first, "I haven't even heard of this new safety patrol matching system. If it's true, then how did this pentagon group get it?"

"I'm not sure. I do know since Augie saved my tail with the Folsom macaroni statue hearing, he's sorta went straight. He'll do odd jobs if the job itself is legit, even if it's part of a bigger scheme that isn't. He won't ever give information on small jobs, but he's always helped me out with big cases. His information has always been good, so I'm not going to start doubting him now."

At this point, the pair was starting to approach some crowds. They both glanced at each other and understood without a word that they would continue this conversation back at the office.

As the approached the office, they heard the Glee Club singing on the other side of the door. "For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow…that nobody can deny." Walking into the office, Fillmore and Ingrid saw Frank, O'Farrell, Anza and Tehama gathered around Vallejo.

"Congratulations Vallejo," Fillmore and Third said at the same time.

Vallejo blinked and asked, "How did you two guess? Frank said he hadn't been able to get a hold of you two for my morning's surprise."

Fillmore just said, "That's why we're the best detective patrollers on the force."

"Now if only you damage bills were as small as the food you leave behind during an eating contest, my life as assistant commissioner will be nice and peaceful," Vallejo replied. The room just laughed as Fillmore shrugged in response to the playful jab.

Ingrid asked, "So who got the other two commissioner spots?"

Vallejo answered, "Andy Walnut, a former commissioner at Jacoby Middle School, got the other assistant commissioner spot. The recent transfer from out of state, Floyd Mitchell, got the head commissioner post. Fortunately I was allowed to have all of you guys under me."

"They gave it to you since you're used to working with us?" asked Frank.

Vallejo's commissioner face dropped and his friend faced came across his face. "I do have a great track record working with you guys. But, while that's mostly true, it isn't the only reason. Fillmore, Third, I need to warn you now. Walnut's rep from Jacoby is that he doesn't care for anyone with a rap sheet. It doesn't matter how short or if they've turned over a new leaf or not. From the commissioner's meeting this morning, I think the head commissioner shares the same perspective. Third should be fine since none of it stuck to her permanent record with her being so smart…I need you to try to keep yourself in check Fillmore. I got your back, but don't go giving them a lot to hammer you with, please. You two are the best; I have no doubt about that. The last thing we need is someone pressuring to get you off the force."

The solemnity that filled the room made it difficult for anyone to immediately speak. Ingrid and Fillmore just nodded to indicate they understood where Vallejo was coming from. To change subjects Ingrid asked, "Vallejo, in the commissioner's meeting, did they mention anything about a new partner matching computer program for safety patrollers?"

Vallejo raised an eyebrow as he said, "Yes, Project Trust. How did you know about it? The only ones in the meeting who knew beforehand were Folsom and Mitchell since he was a commissioner at the High School he transferred from."

Fillmore replied, "Let's talk this over in your office."

Vallejo nodded. Before Vallejo, Fillmore, and Ingrid went into the assistant commissioner's office, Vallejo said, "Everyone, what was just said doesn't leave this office until I say so, understand?"

"You got it chief," replied Tehama as Anza, O'Farrell, and Frank nodded.

* * *

Ingrid and Fillmore were walking away from the school after the commissioner introduction social for the after school shifts. "Vallejo was right, those other two commissioners seem like they don't trust you at all," said Ingrid.

"My rap sheet is what it is. That's all I'll ever be to some people. I came to terms with that a long time ago."

"But all those offenses were a long time ago too. It's stupid of them to think all of your success as a safety patroller was due to being Wayne's partner and then mine. You're the common factor."

"Don't sell yourself short now; you are the smartest kid in school."

Ingrid almost blushed as she replied, "That's school stuff. You come up with more angles on our cases than I do." She added sarcastically, "Besides, I think your buddy Parnassus has better grades than I do since we got into high school."

Cornelius chuckled and replied, "If he does, it's because you're slacking. Although he's been a pain in my side since he got elected to student council, at least Peabody trusts me now."

"Yeah it only took the term paper case for that to happen. It's the politics of it though. Vallejo's great at taking on that part for the force so we can do our jobs."

"Yeah, I do appreciate that. It won't be easy with Parnassus as a student representative, the other two commissioners, and Theldin Lumbar as Student Council President."

"I can't believe Theldin would hold a grudge against you for clearing Eric Orben's name. I guess you just never know with some people," Ingrid replied. She continued, "Of course, I could deal without the head commissioner trying to flirt with me. "

Fillmore couldn't help but tease her. "What? You'd rather have Checkmatey flirting with you."

Ingrid shuddered then replied, "Do I just have bad luck attracting weirdoes and obnoxious guys?"

"Probably, just look at who your partner is," Fillmore replied as he put on a goofy face.

Ingrid couldn't help but smile at Fillmore. "I guess I can't argue with that."

The two safety patrollers had arrived at Ingrid's house. They said their goodbyes to each other as Ingrid went into her home. Fillmore walked the rest of the way to his house a few blocks down the street. He went inside and started on his homework.

* * *

"Cornelius," called Fillmore's mom from the living room.

"Coming," Cornelius replied. He went down the steps and saw his dad and mom on the living room couch. "What's up?"

Kern Fillmore spoke first, "Last month at work I entered a raffle for a month long get-away in the Bahamas. Today I won the drawing."

Joelle Fillmore continued, "The cruise is for two people. Your father and I will be leaving in about a month and a half. While we're gone, we are going to have you stay at a friend's house."

Cornelius raised an eyebrow, but before he could speak his dad spoke, "I've talked with Professor Third and he agreed to have you stay with them while we're out of town. We'll leave you keys so you can get into the house if you need something and to check the mail too. Just make sure you don't eat them out of house and home okay?"

Cornelius chuckled then replied, "Can't make any promises on eating, but I'll do my best."

* * *

O'Farrell, Tehama, Anza, Frank Bishop, Fillmore, and Ingrid were all in Vallejo's office the next morning. The door opened and Vallejo walked in and sat down at his desk. "Okay people, I called all of you in hear for a special briefing. Our head commissioner got a typed letter. It was an open declaration of the intention to end the existence of the safety patrol."

"Who was it from?" asked Frank.

"There were no signatures. Just the words 'the Pentagon' followed by the pentagon mark we've seen on those business cards lately. Mitchell showed us the letter at an emergency commissioner's meeting this morning. I brought up the information Fillmore and Third got yesterday about the National Safety Patrol Convention. I was then given charge of the Pentagon Case."

"So what do you need from us chief?" asked Tehama.

"Fillmore and Third, as of now you two are off your beat. Your sole focus is the Pentagon case file." Fillmore and Ingrid nodded in reply. Vallejo continued, "Tehama and Anza, you two are on back-up. We have to keep the information about the convention quiet, so Third and Fillmore can't just call for back-up over the walkie-talkies. Otherwise, you two have your regular duties." Anza and Tehama looked at each other and nodded. Vallejo addressed Danny and Frank, "You two are to continue as usual, but keep your eyes and ears open." Vallejo finished by saying, "Alright, everyone has their assignments. Keep me posted." With the briefing finished, everyone but Vallejo left the office and went to their desks.

As Ingrid and Fillmore sat down at their desks, Fillmore spoke, "So we know what the Pentagon is after. Other than that, we have no solid leads."

Ingrid replied, "Well, can start by putting out feelers for information about the Pentagon. While we can't mention the convention, we've busted enough people with connections to treat this similar to when we took down Stingray back at X."

"Great idea, I think I know some people around school who can be extra ears and eyes for us," Fillmore replied as he got up out of his chair.

"Who do you have in mind?" Ingrid asked as she followed Fillmore into the hallway.

"For starters, I think should head on over to metal shop. Wheels, Howie, Junior, and Tin Can might give us some clues. Stingray probably contacted those guys using similar means to how the Pentagon contacts people."

"I'm sure they'll be happy to see you again Kocheese," Ingrid replied with a smirk.

Fillmore sarcastically replied, "I think you need to dye you hair pink though Fingers. They might not recognize you with black hair."

* * *

"Good evening everyone," said Zero from his seat at the pentagon table. "I've called you all here to give you an update. In about a month, the plans to steal Project Trust will be complete. Furthermore, Officer Cornelius Fillmore has been assigned to the case. Eventually he will get in our way, but when he does that is when we put into motion our counterplans. For now, those of you in less visible roles around school need to keep a low profile. In one month, all of our hard work will achieve us an ultimate victory."

With ominous smiles behind their hockey masks, the Pentagon members got up from their seats and went for their customized exits. Each one looking forward to the roles they would play one month from now.


	2. To Trust or Not to Trust

**Act Two: To Trust or Not to Trust**

_It's been over a month and we still haven't come up with any new leads_ Fillmore thought at his desk during the after school shift. He continued to mull. _We don't even know if The Pentagon is a group name or a single person's alias. The Pentagon cards haven't been showing up either, so either way the Pentagon is laying low before the National Convention comes to town. At least we know their target is the Project Trust program that Vallejo gave us some more information on. _Fillmore exclaimed "Disco" as he snapped his fingers.

Ingrid looked over at Fillmore from searching through the database of the Pentagon Case on her computer. "Fillmore, what is it?"

"I think I've got an angle," he replied. "Let's go talk with Vallejo," said Fillmore as he got up from his desk.

As Ingrid and Fillmore walked into Vallejo's office, they saw Randall Julian sitting in front of the Assistant Commissioner's desk. Julian smiled and said, "Fillmore good to see you again, and you too Officer Third."

"Nice to see you too. Are we interrupting anything important?" Ingrid replied.

"No," Vallejo responded. "It's actually good timing you two walked in here. This information pertains to the case you two are on. Shut the door and have a seat." Fillmore closed the door behind them and followed Ingrid over to where Vallejo and Julian were.

Randall Julian started his story. "I was at the school district's art competition yesterday. I exited out the back door while everyone was cleaning up after the event. I overheard some voices in the alley that I came out at. They talked about meeting up with some guy to get a payment for a job they have to do. By the time I had got to the corner, they were gone, but one of them had dropped this." At this point Julian held up a business card that had an all too familiar pentagon symbol on it.

Fillmore raised an eyebrow before he replied, "Did they say where or when the meeting is supposed to be?"

"It will happen during the bocce ball game tomorrow. They talked about a boat, so I think it might occur near the docks."

"Thanks Julian, by the way how did you do at the competition?" replied Ingrid.

"I earned second place. Anyways it was great I could repay you Fillmore for helping get back to being a true artist. After all you two did ask me to keep my eyes and ears open." With that, goodbyes were exchanged and Randall walked out of the office. Before Fillmore or Ingrid could leave, Vallejo spoke up.

"I thought I told you two to keep this quiet."

"Relax Vallejo, we just asked people we knew to keep an eye and ear out for things dealing with the Pentagon. Enough people know about them now. We didn't mention anything about the convention," replied Ingrid.

"Okay Third. One last thing, what did you two want when you walked in here?"

Fillmore replied very seriously, "I have an idea to flush the Pentagon out, but it's risky. I'll tell you more after we listen in on that meeting Julian just informed us about." Turning to Ingrid, he said, "Let's go get Anza and Tehama, so we can set up our plan for tomorrow."

As the pair of officers walked out of Vallejo's office, the assistant commissioner was left thinking, _a risky plan? What is going through your head right now Fillmore?_

* * *

Tehama and Anza sat on the balcony of the lighthouse overlooking the lake by Z High School. Ingrid and Fillmore were on a grassy knoll closer to the docks. While Tehama and Anza had their sashes on, Fillmore and Third didn't so they would give themselves away easily. While each pair watched and waited, Anza asked Tehama, "So Karen, are we still on for tonight?"

She smiled as she replied, "Assuming this stakeout doesn't turn up anything that will take long to process, yes we are. What was that dish you were making for our date tonight Joey?"

"Brasato," he replied smugly.

"That's right, I love that dish. You made it for our first date about nine months ago."

As the support pair continued their conversation, on the ground below on the grassy knoll below Ingrid and Fillmore passed time in their usual style.

"Would you rather eat a roasted scorpion or some grilled frog's legs?" asked Fillmore.

"Hmm, I'd go with the frog legs," replied Third. She continued, "Okay my turn, lizard soup or rattlesnake meat?"

"You're getting better at this." After pausing Fillmore replied, "I'd try the lizard soup."

At that moment, the soft churning of someone paddling in water could be heard. Ingrid and Fillmore looked towards the center of the lake and saw a hooded figure in a rowboat. Fillmore whispered to Ingrid, "I can't tell who it is with the hooded sweatshirt."

"I can't tell either, but hold on," she replied. Ingrid asked on the radio, "Tehama, can you two see anything in the boat?"

Tehama replied, "Anza says he sees a plastic bin in the boat. He can't tell what's in it, but it's something orange."

Ingrid and Fillmore looked at each other. Fillmore whispered, "What could that be?"

Ingrid replied," It depends. There is only one person in the boat. Is it someone dropping off the payment like Randall said? Or is it someone picking up a payment and just has something orange in the boat?" As Ingrid finished talking, she noticed a light reflecting in Fillmore's glasses. Turning her head she noticed that the person in the boat and used a mirror and the reflection redirected the light to Fillmore's face.

Tehama's voice came over the radio, "I can see at least five people sneaking up on you from five different directions. You two need to get out of there now!"

"Dog, looks like this stakeout is a bust," Fillmore said dejectedly.

"Never mind that, let's get out of here," Ingrid said in a low voice as she got up. Fillmore quickly followed. As they approached the bottom of the hill, one figure came into view. Fillmore recognized him and whispered, "That's Theo from the waferitas case back at X."

Before Ingrid could respond, they heard Theo shout as he looked over at them, "HEY I THINK I FOUND THEM!"

Ingrid and Fillmore took off at a full run in the opposite direction. They quickly shifted directions as two more figures came into their view. As Fillmore and Third were trying to elude their pursuers, Anza and Tehama were trying to figure out what they could do to help. While Tehama kept her radio in hand, Anza was looking through the binoculars. By this point, Fillmore and Ingrid had reached the edge of the Z High School's sport complexes. They turned down an alleyway between the main gym and an equipment warehouse. Before they could see the end of the alley, Tehama came over the radio with a panicked tone, "Stop! You got some people approaching you from both sides of the alley." Looking around, Fillmore saw a small nook where the wall of the equipment warehouse made an L. He quickly pulled Ingrid, so the two of them were in the nook.

"Fillmore this probably isn't going to work," Ingrid whispered. She continued, "If they look in this nook, we're caught." As the footsteps of their pursuers got louder, she could see a look on Fillmore's face indicating he was trying to think of a Plan B. They both saw a shadow coming into view on the ground in front of them. Ingrid suddenly felt Fillmore grab her and spun her around. Before she could ask him what he was thinking, he pulled Ingrid into his body and kissed her. It briefly registered with Ingrid that the attempt was to act as a couple making out in a hard to be seen spot. Only very quickly, it stopped being an act. Ingrid was thoroughly enjoying the sensation of Fillmore kissing her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held his head so she could deepen the kiss. Fillmore in return wrapped one arm around her back with his palm gently holding her head, while his other arm wrapped around her waist.

* * *

Theo heard some rustling as he came to the center of the alleyway and met Nicky Larkin and the people who were giving chase with Nicky. Nicky turned to see two figures making out in a nook in the outside wall, but couldn't clearly tell who they were. Nicky, almost shouting, said, "Hey did you two see anyone come through here. HELLO, CAN YOU HEAR ME!" The couple gave no indication that they were even aware of his presence. They were too enthralled with their current activity to notice or care.

"Come on Larkin," Theo said. "They obviously were oblivious to anyone who came through here." As the group left stumped as to where their prey and disappeared to, Ingrid and Fillmore were oblivious to the fact that their pursuers had gotten to within a couple of feet of them.

* * *

Up in the lighthouse, Anza and Tehama had watched the whole thing through the binoculars they had with them. "That was some quick thinking there by those two," said Anza as he dropped his binoculars. Upon not hearing Tehama give a reply, he looked over to see her still looking through her binoculars. Picking his binoculars back up, he looked through them again. Then he said in surprise, "Whoa, they're still at it?"

"I have a feeling that wasn't part of the plan, but I don't think either of them is exactly thinking about the plan right now. That is, if they are even thinking," Tehama replied.

"Think we should radio in and let them know the coast is clear?" Anza asked.

"We probably should, but I don't really have the heart too. Especially since they were like the only people in the safety patrol to let us be when we started dating. Granted they aren't dating, but I think that might change soon."

Anza just nodded as he smirked.

* * *

Both Fillmore and Ingrid started to regain an awareness of their surroundings at the same time. They quickly, but awkwardly stopped kissing. _Man I feel like I just crossed a big line there. We're friends, but I should have thought to ask or at least explain it first_, thought Fillmore. He stuttered out in a whisper, "Uh, sorry about that. I should have asked first."

Trying to hide the rising blush in her face, Ingrid looked at her boots and whispered back, "I figured out pretty quick what the plan was. It's okay, really." _Who am I kidding? That was more than okay that was…that was…_

Tehama speaking over the radio, "I think you two are clear to get back to Safety Patrol Headquarters."

Ingrid grabbed her radio and replied, "Thanks Tehama."

Anza added with a hint of teasing in his voice, "We'll meet you two back there. Oh, by the way it's been clear for about three or four minutes now, but we thought we would play it safe and wait a little bit before we called you two."

An awkward aurora could be felt in the air around Fillmore and Ingrid. Fillmore broke the tension and said, "Well, let's get back to HQ." The pair realized Fillmore still had his arms wrapped around Ingrid. As Fillmore let go, Ingrid felt her legs give a little and put her hand against the wall to steady herself. "You okay?" Fillmore asked with concern evident in his voice.

"Yeah, it's probably just the adrenaline rush wearing off," she replied between breaths. Fillmore looked at her questioningly. Ingrid breathing mellowed as she continued, "Really I'm fine let's get back to the office. We've got a lot to do since this whole operation was a bust." Fillmore nodded and the pair started to head back to the Safety Patrol Office.

* * *

"So after all that we got nothing?" asked Vallejo as Fillmore and Ingrid were sitting across the desk inside the assistant commissioner's office.

"Unfortunately, I have to say yes. This Pentagon seems to be very careful. We only have a single lead," Ingrid stated.

"But that lead gives us a shot to catch them," Fillmore added. Vallejo looked at Fillmore questioningly. Cornelius continued, "We know what their next major target is; the Project Trust program."

"Fillmore, are you suggesting we should jeopardize the project being stolen to catch the Pentagon?" Vallejo asked as his voice volume started to rise.

Fillmore stared down Vallejo and said, "No, we only make them think we will. When does the program get here to Z?"

"It should get here about a few days before the convention. What are you thinking Fillmore?"

"We get it delivered here ahead of schedule and securely store it somewhere. Then at the time it's supposed to be delivered, we stage a stakeout. In addition we have some patrollers go undercover as deliverymen so if the stakeout misses the Pentagon, we can spring our trap on that level too."

Vallejo asked, "Seems pretty solid, so why did you mention earlier that it's risky."

Before Fillmore could reply, Ingrid spoke up, "The information about Project Trust has already been breached so there is a leak somewhere. When the actually delivery happens early, we can't have very much security. If this early delivery gets leaked, we would have reduced security to compensate for a foe that already has the upper hand of surprise."

Vallejo leaned back in his chair as he looked up when he placed his hand on the back of his neck. After a few moments, he sat straight up and looked over at his best two officers. "I won't give you the go ahead yet. I will bring this up at the next commissioner's meeting and we'll go from there."

* * *

"You've got to be joking Vallejo. To not attract attention, we would only be able to assign two officers. This plan is foolish!" exclaimed Andy Walnut.

The head commissioner Floyd Mitchell added, "We couldn't assign any commissioner either like we would for a regular escort case. That leaves the six in your office who know about Project Trust, despite the fact they shouldn't since the program's creation was going to be announce when it arrived it on its normal schedule."

"Those six only know because a leak of information had already happened and my two best officers found out about it. You should be thankful they brought it to my attention so we would at least know the hot water we're in." Vallejo replied as he pointed back at Commissioner Mitchell.

Andy Walnut retorted, "Two best officers? The pretty genius girl I can buy, but your ex-delinquent relies way too much on improvisation and the skills from…"

Before Walnut could finish, an obviously irked Vallejo cut him off, "I said those two were the best and I mean it. I've seen some great ones too. From Robert Chestnut to Wayne Leggit, but those two are willing to risk just about anything to crack a case."

"Settled down Vallejo," spoke Floyd. "This program was designed by two former safety patrollers are currently in college. You spoke of Robert Chestnut, but this program was designed by the wonder twins Chuck and Chippy Chestnut. Those two solved more cases than anyone. The program's basic premise is to understand an officer's strengths and weaknesses and pair them up accordingly to compensate. This pinnacle of knowledge from the best officers ever shouldn't be put at risk because two officers have a risky plan."

Vallejo calmly but coldly replied, "The question should be are you willing to risk it being stolen because we do nothing?"

Breaking the thick tension in the room, Principal Folsom spoke, "I'm not going to risk something this big being stolen on my watch, especially with us hosting this national event. I'll make the contacts to get it delivered here early and let you three know when. If this whole thing fails, I will disband the safety patrol. After all what good would the safety patrol be if the delinquents know the safety patrol's strengths and weaknesses?"

The head commissioner hung and shook his head. "Fine, but as Walnut said the most we can commit and give this plan a chance at succeeding is probably two patrollers at the most. If you trust your 'best' officers that much, then I guess those two will be officers you choose Vallejo?"

Vallejo actually smirked as he said, "I wouldn't want anyone but Fillmore and Third."

* * *

As Ingrid and Fillmore walked away from the school at the end of the day, Ingrid was going over in her mind the conversation her and Tehama had while Fillmore was giving Anza a hand with some library overdue notices.

**Tehama looked over and thought she saw Ingrid staring absent mindedly in front of her as Third propped her head on her hand. Following Ingrid's line of sight she saw Anza and Fillmore working on some library overdue tickets. Smiling to herself, she walked over to where Ingrid was. When she got behind and a little to the side of Ingrid, Tehama said in a low voice, "I guess Fillmore is a good kisser?"**

**Without thinking Ingrid dreamily replied, "He's fantastic." Ingrid blinked as she realized what she had said. Looking to her left, she saw Tehama just grinning at her. Before Ingrid could say anything, Tehama just nodded at Ingrid and walked back to her desk.**

Ingrid's flashback was interrupted by Fillmore asking, "Ingrid, are you sure you're okay?"

Ingrid shook her head and asked, "Yes, why?"

"Because I asked you what time I should come over tonight and you didn't answer"

"Anytime should work." Ingrid then quickly stammered, "Wait! Why are you coming over tonight?"

Both of them stopped walking as Fillmore stared at her for a moment like she had lost her mind. He casually answered, "My parents left for that cruise today. I think your dad took them to the airport while we were at school today. What did you think I meant?"

"My mind pretty much went blank." Ingrid replied.

"Well at the least we can start looking at how we want to plan this delivery," Fillmore said.

"Right, sounds good," Ingrid replied. As they started walking again Ingrid thought _I really need to get it together. I haven't been able to keep my thoughts together for very long since that kiss; that wonderful…wonderful kiss._

Meanwhile Fillmore was in his own thoughts. _I think I've really made her uncomfortable with that kiss a few days ago. She hasn't been the same around me since. I enjoyed it but dog did I ever put our friendship in limbo. Heck if I haven't been keeping myself so busy with this Pentagon case, I'm not sure if my mind would keep from wandering back to that moment._

It was about eleven o'clock that night as Fillmore and Ingrid were looking over a map of Z High School. For the past four hours they had thought about advantages and disadvantages of different delivery points on the school grounds. Ingrid yawned and leaned back into the couch as she closed her eyes intending to just rest them for a moment. She instead quickly fell asleep. With her body relaxing into slumber, she started to lean over to the side. She stopped when he head came to a rest on Fillmore's shoulder. Feeling her head resting on him, Fillmore looked up from the map and saw that Ingrid had fallen asleep. He couldn't help by softly smile at her as he could hear her breathing by his ear. _I guess she's out for the rest of the night _he thought before he yawned himself. He stretched his neck a little to try to wake himself up, but found his eyelids closing on him as he yawned a second time. Not wanting to wake Ingrid so he could get up and head to the guest bedroom, Fillmore leaned back into the couch and closed his eyes. Soon he too was fast asleep.

* * *

Ingrid started to stir as the morning sun started to shine through the living room windows. As she slowly gained awareness of her surroundings, she froze when she realized that she and Fillmore had slept on the couch all night. At some point during the night someone had even thrown a blanket over the couple. Looking over at the clock she saw that is was about six thirty. At this point, Fillmore's arm, that had been on Ingrid's back, dropped down to around her waist. Ingrid rested her head in Fillmore's shoulder as she thought _we must have spent the whole night together. Both of us must have been out cold. I feel so relaxed and rested though and right now, this just feels so…so right. _She smelled some coffee being brewed in the kitchen. Begrudgingly she pulled herself away from Fillmore and went into the kitchen. To her surprise she saw her sister standing by the coffee maker. Startled, Ingrid stammered out, "Hey sis. When did you come home? Why are you home?"

Areilla smiled as she retorted, "Wow Ingrid did you forget? I told you that I was hired to work in the research lab next to the university dad works at, so I moved back to town. I'm staying here until I can get my own place."

"Crackers, I forgot all about that. Things have been busy between a case at school and the National Safety Patrol Convention coming up."

Areilla poured a cup of coffee for herself and looked over at Ingrid to ask if she wanted some. Ingrid shook her head to answer the unspoken question. The sisters sat down at the table and Areilla spoke. "I take it the map you and Fillmore were looking at has something to do with that case you mention. Both of you were fast asleep when I got here around midnight."

"I'm surprised you didn't wake us up so we could head to our beds. Fillmore is staying with us while his parents are attending some cruise."

"Dad told me about the cruise. As for waking you I did try. When I shook you, all I got in reply was a whimper as you curled into your partner. At that point he put his arm around you and I just didn't have the will to wake you at that point. So I threw a blanket on you two and went to the basement bed to sleep since I presumed Fillmore had the guest bedroom."

Ingrid blushed as her sister talked about curling into Fillmore and whimpering. She got up to start a cup of hot chocolate for herself. Ingrid stirred her cup as she sat back down and managed to say, "You don't seem to be too surprised. I would have thought the scene would be a little weird at least."

Areilla rolled her eyes and said, "Riggghhht. Fillmore, the one you came to me asking if I had any good books to help someone whose pet had died. The guy you talked to on your radio when we were all sick. A few days later when you still had that cold he brought you some books and that Happy Kat Crowbar you had been saving for."

"They were only Dr. Seuss books. Fillmore joked that since he couldn't figure out books I haven't read, he just gave me some light hearted children's books," Ingrid interrupted.

Areilla retorted, "Which are the only children's books you have kept after reading them once. Not to mention this was the only friend you made since mom died, that actually came to this house to see what was troubling you around Mother's Day. It was the first Mother's Day we since we had moved here and Fillmore already noticed something subtly but deeply troubling you. You may not have noticed it, but you're not as gloomy as you used to be since you became friends with him. I wouldn't even be surprised if he will wind up being your first kiss someday."

On Areilla's last sentence, Ingrid unceremoniously spit out the hot chocolate that was in her mouth. There was nothing she could do to prevent the huge blush on her face as she stared into her mug as the memories of the kiss her and Fillmore shared in the alley came flooding into her mind. Ingrid's head jolted up as Areilla playfully jibed, "From your facial expression, I guess I should have spoken of your first kiss in the past tense" Ingrid looked at the sister who she shared so much with and respected immensely. Areilla added as she got up from the table, "Don't worry; I'll leave you two be for it to workout however it's going to work out. Well I need to get to the lab and you two probably need to get to school. Late."

As Areilla walked out of the kitchen, Ingrid looked over at the clock and saw it now read seven o'clock. _Well I guess I'll go wake Fillmore up. We need to be at the school by eight thirty to meet with Vallejo and the other commissioners to lay out our plans._

* * *

A cool breeze blew on the full moonlit night. Fillmore stood at the front of the school as a car pulled up. The front passenger window rolled down, and an adult figure asked, "Are you Cornelius Fillmore?" Fillmore showed the man his Safety Patroller ID. After checking the ID for authenticity, he handed Fillmore a flash drive. "That drive has all the data for Project Trust on it. We weren't told why we were delivering it early, but you better keep it safe since it's leaving our security."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure it stays secure," Fillmore replied. The window on the car rolled up and the car drove off. After it was out of sight, Fillmore put the flash drive in his pocket and said on his radio, "Ingrid how's the path to the vault location looking?"

"No movement anywhere along the way for the past hour. I'll keep watch from here as you go and let you know if I see anything," Ingrid responded from the roof of the school.

As Fillmore made his way past the front of the school, heading to the side door, he heard on his radio, "Fillmore wait"

"What is it Ingrid?"

"Someone's moving from the docks towar.." THWACK

"Ingrid? Are you alright? What happened?" Fillmore said. Drawing Fillmore's attention was another voice. One he didn't recognize, but had an echo effect to it.

"I think it's time for The Pentagon to start giving some introductions. I'm One. Now hand over the flash drive Fillmore."

Fillmore looked at the man demanding the flash drive. The guy was simply dressed in a brown hooded with a hockey mask over his face. Fillmore smirked and replied, "Keep dreaming baby, cuz you getting the flash drive. Well that's not happenin'."

As One lunged for Fillmore, the safety patroller quickly side stepped him. One quickly recovered by using the school's wall as a floor for him to step on to make a quick turn. With One's back to the wall, Fillmore said, "I can see this is going to be a little difficult."

"I get a compliment from the man who was the best. I guess I've improved my skills over the years."

Fillmore raised an eyebrow, but didn't have much time to ponder as One charged at him. Using some of the self-defense skills Fillmore learned over the years, he was able to block One's punches. Fillmore quickly used one leg to trip One. Picking himself off the ground, One readjusted his facemask then turned to face Fillmore. "If I can't take it from you, maybe I'll just trade you for it."

Fillmore chuckled and replied, "Really? What makes you think I would trade it to you?"

"I guess I should introduce you to my gal. Two is right behind you. Don't worry; I won't try to steal the drive while you look. We already have the upper hand."

As Fillmore turned around he thought, _Two? I guess the Pentagon is a group then. Probably five… _His thoughts came to a halt as he saw another cloaked, hooded figure with a hockey mask. As Two spoke, a feminine voice with an echo could be heard. "So what's more important to you? That drive or your partner?" she asked as she held an unconscious Ingrid by the back of Third's black dress.

Fillmore gritted his teeth as he tried to think a way out of the current jam. He reached into his pocket.

"I guess you've decided to hand it ov…"Two started to say. She stopped as she realized Fillmore had taken out his safety patrol badge and threw it like a Frisbee at her. It caught her so off that it hit her directly in the hockey mask.

At the same time Fillmore's badge was flying through the air, One came from behind Fillmore and almost grabbed him. Without turning around, Fillmore threw his head back and hit One in his hockey mask. In the time it took their hockey masks to break and fall to the ground, Fillmore had managed to grab Ingrid around her waist carry her so there was some distance between them and the two Pentagon leaders. In turning to look back at his adversaries, Fillmore could not hide the surprise in his voice. "Sonny Lombard and Penny Madrid, I never thought you two would sink so low as to take another person as a hostage."

Penny replied, "If the payoff is big enough sure, but you haven't understood that for years."

"Not since he decided to go to the other side. I'll give my girl here credit though, she had the same temptations you had Fillmore, but she stayed true to herself, unlike you. O well, since you messed up, I get to have the best girl in the world as a girlfriend" added Sonny. He continued. "But back to business, I believe you have something we want. Face it Fillmore, you can't get escape the two of us if you have to carry your unconscious partner."

As Fillmore held Ingrid in one of his arms, he replied, "Just watch me." Fillmore pushed door to the school in as he ran into the school. Sonny and Penny ran in after him. As Fillmore ran he thought, _okay Fillmore you got lucky that the door that was left unlocked was close by. Now how am I going to shake those two and keep Ingrid safe? _

* * *

"He just ran into the auditorium," said Penny as her and Sonny were still in hot pursuit of Fillmore. As the pair came into the auditorium, they stopped at the entrance and looked around for where Fillmore might be hiding with Ingrid. Sonny called out.

"Face it Fillmore, you're trapped. The doors leading outside are going to be barred shut right now. The only way for you to get out is to come out the way you came in." As Sonny and Penny listened for any movement, they heard rustling backstage. Sonny motioned with his hands for Penny to stay by the doors as he went backstage to find Fillmore. He started to slowly walk to the stage, checking the aisles as he went to be sure Fillmore wasn't hiding in them and the rustling backstage wasn't some decoy.

As Sonny was shouting, Fillmore was backstage trying to think of a plan as he held Ingrid in his arms. Looking to his left, he saw some of the sacks used as weights for various plays. Turning his attention back to Ingrid, it was clear that she was still out. He stroked her cheek with his hand as he softly gazed on her face. His eyes narrowed in determination as a plan came to him. He gently picked Ingrid up and went over to the sacks. _This better work_ thought Fillmore as he made the preparations for his plan.

By this point Sonny was about halfway down the aisle to the stage when Fillmore ran from behind the curtain to the edge of the stage with a lasso he made from some rope backstage. As Sonny started to run towards him, Fillmore threw the lasso and latched onto two chairs in the balcony seating to the left of the stage. Fillmore jumped off stage and started to climb up towards the balcony.

"I guess we just recapture his partner," Penny stated from the back of the auditorium.

In seeing the Project Trust flash drive on a lanyard dangling from Fillmore's wrist, Sonny replied, "No time, hurry up and get to the balcony doors. You can cut him off up there." After he was done saying that, he jumped onto the rope Fillmore was climbing on and started to follow.

As Fillmore reached the balcony, he looked down to see Sonny about half way up the rope. _I can't drop the rope without injuring him. Best use this time to get some separation. _As soon as Fillmore exited the doors leading from the balcony to the hallway, he saw Penny running up the stairs. Fillmore ran the other way until he saw a column connecting first floor to the railway he was running on. Using that column to slow his descent, he got back to the first floor. At the last moment, he ducked as he saw a hand from into his peripheral vision.

Sonny went completely over Fillmore and landed about five feet from him. "I thought I had you there. Running down the steps Penny came up seemed like a good way to catch you off guard."

"You know you're finished once I make my report at headquarters tomorrow," Fillmore replied as he surveyed his surrounding as he planned his next escape route.

From behind him Penny spoke. "That is presumptuous of you. I don't think you're going to make a report after you've been capture."

Fillmore quickly bolted to his right as Penny and Sonny both converged on Fillmore to try to snag him. Sonny managed to knock one of Fillmore's shoes off, so Fillmore started to run with only one shoe into the next hallway. As Sonny and Penny pursued him, they saw him bolt into the music room. When they entered the room after Fillmore they dodged Fillmore's other shoe as he threw it at them to buy a few seconds of time. Fillmore escaped out the window. The Pentagon pair quickly climbed out after him.

As they climbed out they saw Fillmore running into the Miniature Golf Course. Fillmore, having spent some leisure time playing the Z High School Mini-Golf team, new the layout very well. As he was close to the eighteenth hole, he saw something that immediately gave him an idea. _That will work perfectly_, he thought.

Fillmore had started to put some decent distance between him and the Pentagon pair. He looked back to see them wandering through the golf course looking for him. He thought _hmm maybe I didn't need to hide it after all. Especially if thos…_WHACK. Fillmore never saw the figure that struck him from behind as he fell unconscious to the ground.

* * *

Ingrid groaned from her headache as she opened up her eyes. Before she could take in all of her surroundings, a soft feminine voice said from behind her, "Ingrid, you're awake." Turning towards the voice Ingrid saw Rita and Linus Santiago. Rita was by Ingrid's side quickly and placed her hand on the safety patrol officer's shoulder as she said, "Take it easy. Linus and I found you hidden amongst the stage weight bags when we came in to do some rehearsing this morning. You have a pretty bad welt on your head, so we contacted the school nurse. Hopefully she will be here soon."

Ingrid blinked a couple of times to try to clear her mind. She looked around the room and saw that she was in the backstage area of the auditorium. Ingrid promptly remembered the events of the previous night before she was knocked out. _Crackers, I must have gone from being unconscious to sleeping. But who knocked me out? Why go through the trouble of moving me here to where people were more likely to find me instead of on the roof? Did the person who got me get Fillmore too? _ Ingrid's thoughts were broken by Rita waving a hand in front of her face.

"Ingrid the nurse is here. Why don't you let her check you out? Then maybe you can tell us what happened."

"Not sure how much I can tell you, but Linus can you get in touch with Vallejo and get him over here while the nurse looks me over. I'll need to go over some stuff with him."

"Sure Ingrid, I'll give him a call now," Linus replied.

* * *

Ingrid hung up the phone at her desk. It had been about two hours since Linus and Rita had found her hidden inside a weight sack in the auditorium. _Now I'm starting to worry. Areilla just said Fillmore never made it back to our house last night. I at least explained why I didn't come back, but what happened to Fillmore? Vallejo's in his office right now talking with the other commissioners. I've told them all that I remember, including someone heading towards Fillmore before I got knocked unconscious. Right now, we don't have a lead and I have no idea where the database is. This is definitely not going well. _The door to Vallejo's office opened, drawing the attention of Ingrid and the rest of the officers to the door. The Head Commissioner Fred Mitchell and Commissioner Andy Walnut walked out of the office without saying a word to any of the safety patrollers. Vallejo spoke up after they had left.

"Everyone, I want your attention. I have an important briefing." He solemnly spoke. "This morning everyone here was told about Project Trust and the classified case Fillmore and Third had been working on. As of this moment, the whereabouts of both Project Trust and Fillmore are unknown. Even worse, this foul up somehow has already made its way to the school's newspaper reporters. As far as reporters go, all questions should be redirected to one of the commissioners. From what little information we have, there are two possible explanations. Walnut's safety patrollers are tackling one of those possibilities and we are going to handle the other. As of now Third, Anza, and Tehama are conducting a missing officer search. Bishop and O'Farrell are on backup duty. The rest of you are to keep an eye out for clues and let them know ASAP. You will be informed of Walnut's progress by memo starting tomorrow." After taking a breath, Vallejo sternly said, "Third, Anza, Tehama, Bishop, and O'Farrell, I need you all in my office, now."

The group headed into Vallejo's office as everyone else started to get back to work. After everyone was in the office and the door closed, Frank asked, "if we're handling a missing officer case, do you mean that Walnut's office is approaching this as…"

Vallejo interrupted, "Yes Frank. Fillmore is being looked at as a rogue officer."

"This is a joke Vallejo!" Ingrid almost shouted as he slammed her hands on Vallejo's desk. "Fillmore's probably out there risking his neck waiting for some backup and he's being treated like…"

"That's enough Third. As much as I don't believe Fillmore went rogue, it is plausible that he stole Project Trust. There's no motive that we can think of, but someone knew where you would be staking out. There was knowledge of the time and location of the dropout and Fillmore hasn't turned up today either. As tight as information of the transfer was kept, all the details of the operation were known and planned for. The operation was suggested and planned out by Fillmore. He had a prime opportunity to manipulate things to his advantage to get Project Trust and now lay low until he gets all the data he needs from it."

Ingrid clenched her right fist, but before she could speak, Tehama close her own hand around Ingrid's. Tehama asked Vallejo, "So when we find out where and why Fillmore is missing, we'll clear his name right chief?"

"That's my hope. It was hard enough to convince the other two commissioners to contribute enough manpower to both probabilities. The only stipulation is that all your work on finding Fillmore has to be on a volunteer basis, which is why I assigned you all. I don't think anyone here has any objections, right?"

Seeing smirks and heads shaking 'no', Vallejo continued, "Alright then. Just watch your backs. Things are going to get really messy until all this is straightened out, so make sure you all go by the book on this."

With that Vallejo dismissed everyone back to their desks. Ingrid was the last one leaving, but stopped when Vallejo called, "O, Ingrid."

Turning her head she replied, "Yes?"

"Don't run yourself ragged on finding him. You'll have a better chance if you keep yourself rested," Vallejo advised with a soft tone.

"Yeah…thanks," Ingrid replied some uneasiness. She went back to her desk to start planning out the investigation.

* * *

The next morning Ingrid walked into the office and went over to the hot cocoa machine. As her cup filled she thought, _I have definitely had better sleeping nights. After the cocoa kicks in I'll get back to work on trying to find Fillmore. Scouring my lookout post, the auditorium, and the last place I saw Fillmore from my lookout all turned up nothing. _Ingrid walked over and sat down at her desk and turned on her computer. As she sipped her cocoa she started to smell something burning. Looking under her desk by her computer, her eyes went wide with what she saw. Ingrid quickly dove out of her chair towards Fillmore's desk. BOOM!

Everyone in the office had turned around as they heard Ingrid jump from her chair and saw her desk consumed in an explosion of snow cone ice.

* * *

Andy Walnut tossed the case folder onto Vallejo's desk. "I think this will rule out your theory of Fillmore being a missing officer, Vallejo. That delinquent's fingerprints were found on the bomb pieces and trigger mechanism that blew up Officer Third's desk. The prints matched up in the electronic database." Commissioner Walnut turned to Fillmore's search party and said, "I wanted you all here so you understand you don't need to put yourselves in anymore danger. Fillmore knows you tendencies and next time one of you might actually get hurt. I'm sure our Head Commissioner agrees."

Fred Mitchell spoke up saying, "I want to be clear that none of you are expected to continue trying to clear a guilty man's name. There's no point in it."

Ingrid cut in with a harsh tone, "except everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Fillmore's probably being set-up."

"Evidence is easy to plant, but I don't think you can plant fingerprints," Mitchell replied. "Go ahead and read the case file, that one is a hard copy for this office anyways." As he started to leave the office, Ingrid coldly retorted.

"At some point you just have to trust people, and I'd trust Fillmore with my life."

"It might just be that if you keep trying to find him," Mitchell replied cautiously. He left the room followed by Commissioner Walnut.

Ingrid broke the eerie silence that had fallen upon the room. "You're going to let us continue right Vallejo? Vallejo? Say something already."

Vallejo ran his hand along the back of his neck. "Those fingerprints are pretty damaging. I have to say that I have my doubts now but, I did say this was on a volunteer basis. So if you guys want to continue, you can."

"Alright then I'll get going. I'll just have a look at the evidence they process from my desk and…"

Vallejo interrupted, "Ingrid, I'm going to let you guys continue, but I am going to have to go by the book on this. Unless you guys show me how something can clear Fillmore, I won't be able to let you use much of the office's resources. I can't go wasting funds just because I believe in my officers. I have to prove it on paper to those who can have doubts, so they can believe too."

Ingrid's face was a strange mix of gloomy and steadfast determination, "I get it. Since my desk is busted, I'll just use Fillmore's since he's out." As she walked out the door, Ingrid thought _don't worry Fillmore. I'll get this figured out. I'm supposed to be the smartest kid in school. Trust me, I'm not going to stop until I find you and help solve this case._


	3. For Justice, For Friendship, For Love

**Act Three: For Justice, For Friendship, For Love**

Fillmore woke up and stretched his legs in the wooden cell he had been in for the last few days. Fortunately, when he first regained consciousness a few days ago, his captors had searched him, but left his pocket notebook and pen in the cell. He had managed to write a note and hide it in his cell before he tried using the pen to pick the lock on cell door. Fillmore's luck ended there as Penny and Sonny showed up with another masked figured. The unknown companion berated the two for being so careless to leave Fillmore with the pen when that person saw Fillmore picking the lock. They quickly entered the cell and subdued Fillmore and tied his hands and feet together. Fillmore wasn't able to do anything with the 3 on 1 assault. To make sure Fillmore was secure, his hands were tied behind his back and two ropes were used on his feet. One rope was to bind his feet together and the other acted as a tether from his bound legs to a wooden chair. Another rope also acted as a tether from Fillmore's wrists to the chair. They left him in the cell as they took his pen and paper with them. Then over the past few days they just gave him a small amount of water and no food.

After doing what little stretching he could, Fillmore heard the door open behind him. As Sonny Lombard walked in, he mocked Fillmore as he spoke. "You get a special treat today Fillmore. Instead of a bottle of water with a straw, you get a peanut butter and jelly sandwich." Sonny just put down the paper plate with the sandwich and the open bottle of water with a straw next to it. He grabbed the empty bottle and started to walk out of the cell. At the gate he turned around and said, "O and don't forget. All you have to do to get out of here is tell us where you put Project Trust." After seeing Fillmore was still not going to break his silence, Sonny left.

Fillmore scooted like an inchworm towards his daily meal. He quickly ate the sandwich as he was on his stomach so his mouth could grab the sandwich. After washing it down with some of the water, his stomach growled. _Man I wish I didn't have a bottomless pit for a stomach right now. It's obvious from the walls and ceiling of this place where on the school grounds I am being held. Nobody uses this castle anymore since it was built for that engineering competition. Judging by that Pentagon table in the open space outside this cell, I'd say there are probably five Pentagon members. Sonny and Penny are two of them. Then there was that masked figure. Whoever that was, Sonny and Penny obviously screwed up when I found out who they were, given that figure's reaction. That still leaves two more. I thought I might see who, but this place seems to be pretty vacant most of the time. Either that or they're not meeting here with me so close. _

Fillmore exhaled as he started to reposition himself so he could try to get some more rest. It hadn't been able to find a comfortable sleeping position yet with the ropes tied the way they were. His only sleep recently had been due sheer exhaustion. He rolled over a little so he leaned on his left side, which had been the least uncomfortable position he had found.

_It's already been a few days so I know the safety patrol is already looking for me. This Pentagon group though, they don't make many mistakes. The only one who seems to know everything that is going on seems to be that one figure in the hockey mask. That character was precautious enough to be wearing gloves the entire time too, so that would rule out any fingerprints. It might be a while before the Pentagon leaves a clue so the others can crack this case or at least find me. I'll just have to hold out until then. At least Ingrid should have been safely found by now. Linus and Rita practice in the auditorium almost every morning, so that probably went well. Aside from Ingrid being safe, the only other thing I did right that night was hiding the database. The only strange thing was after they tied me up. Sonny and Penny held my hands so they would be open palm while that other figure's gloved hands pushed against mine. That doesn't serve any purpose for testing the strength of these rope knots. _"Oh snap! The gloves would have my fingerprints. That's why they would let me go once I told them were the database is. They've been setting me up. The only question is what were my fingerprints planted on?"

* * *

Anza entered the Safety Patrol Headquarters and Glee Club Annex that morning and saw Vallejo discussing something with Head Commissioner Mitchell in the Assistant Commissioner's office. "Vallejo has had a rough couple of days lately huh," observed Anza as he walked over to Tehama's desk.

"The head commissioner has been turning up the heat since people started to arrive for the safety patrol convention. With Project Trust being a national database, widespread disbandment could happen because the patrols would be useless with organized delinquents having that information. To top things off, the article about the database missing right before it was supposed to be introduced at the National Convention was in the Z High School Dispatch today," replied Tehama.

"The convention starts tomorrow. We're running out of time and fast," Anza stated.

Tehama looked over her shoulder towards Ingrid sitting at Fillmore's desk as she pored over the case file of her exploding desk. Tehama turned back to Anza and gloomily said, "I don't want to believe it, but it's not looking that great for Fillmore either right now." Anza just nodded. The pair's attention suddenly snapped back towards Ingrid as the safety patroller shot straight up in her chair.

"Tehama and Anza come over here. I think I found something," Ingrid said with some hope in her voice. As soon as Karen and Joseph got over to Ingrid she pointed towards the segments of the file she had pulled aside. "Look here at the snow cone ice. It had traces of the syrup still. When the syrup was analyzed, it was determined to be the most difficult brand to get on the market. That's because you can only get it with smoits. I've sent an email to Andy Walnut about that. Chances are someone who has access to a lot of smoits is one of our primary culprits."

"Is that it?" Anza asked

Before Ingrid could reply, Vallejo called from his office, "Third! Anza! Tehama! I need you three in here now." Ingrid grabbed the file and segments she had pulled out and carried it with her as they headed into the office. As Ingrid entered the office she saw a safety patroller that was also in the picture on Fillmore's desk.

"Wayne Leggit, good to see you," Anza said as he walked in behind Ingrid.

"Good to see you Anza and Tehama. This here is my Deputy Sheriff Emily Kinzey."

After some quick handshakes Vallejo spoke, "I didn't call you three in here because Wayne is in town for the convention. It's about the Pentagon case."

"I'll explain it Vallejo," said Head Commissioner Mitchell. "I understand you three have still been pursuing a closed angle on the Pentagon case. I'm giving you a direct order now to stop it. The press is already eating this alive and outrage from Student Council Representatives like Brad Parnassus is giving this patrol a bad enough name. I don't need the press being able to dig and suggest we are showing favoritism towards a corrupt officer. He'll get his due process upon being apprehended. If you three want to pursue anything more on this case, you need my direct approval as the Head Commissioner." He left the room without giving any time for objections or questions.

Wayne spoke first to break the silence, "Vallejo told me all about it and I was informed of everything that has happened. I'm the Sherriff of my high school's safety patrol and I have to agree with what the evidence has shown. I wouldn't have expected Fillmore to…"

Ingrid mercilessly cut him off. "Fillmore hasn't done anything wrong!" Ingrid shouted as she threw the case file onto Vallejo's desk. Lowering her tone a little she regained her composure and continued. "Look at the fingerprints taken from my desk and compare them to the fingerprints I took off of Fillmore's desk this morning. There both his prints, but the ones that came off of my desk are reversed left to right."

Emily Kinzey stared at this revelation. She asked, "But there both his prints. The computer system was able to match it since it rotates the fingerprint every possible way in case it was a partial print. What's your point?"

Ingrid replied, "A computer can only match things up. It can't conceptualize how they got that way. If you were to take a new glove, put it on your hand and press it open palmed to my ungloved open palmed hand, my fingerprints would be on the glove. Now if you go and hold something with that glove…"

"It would be your fingerprints and not Emily's that get transferred," finished Tehama.

"That's a lot of trouble to go through to frame someone, plus how would they get Fillmore's fingerprints?" asked Kinzey.

Anza replied, "Fillmore was missing for more than a whole day by the time Ingrid's desk exploded. That would have been plenty of time for Fillmore's captor to take prints off him since Fillmore's would probably be unconscious if he was captured."

"Plus the Pentagon had been very diligent so far in their movements. That level of calculation would seem to fit the existing pattern." finished Ingrid.

"Okay so it's plausible Fillmore is being framed. That's only going to be useful once this case gets solved and you three are off the case now remember. It's out of my hands with the Head Commissioner taking charge like that," said Vallejo.

"Vallejo's right. We need to go by the book on this," said Wayne in support of Vallejo.

Ingrid retorted, "We seem to be stuck in this mess because we're going exactly by the book. It's making us predictable. Every plan we've done so far, the Pentagon has predicted and had an adequate counter measure. Besides the last thing to catch my attention allows us to do that now. A piece of black rubber was found after my desk exploded. I had nothing that would match it and neither did any of the bomb pieces. If the culprit wore gloves, it would have been something stuck on the glove. Looking at it more closely, I saw treads. The treads indicate the rubber probably came off a tire."

Anza inquired, "So you think the Black Rubber Castle is the base of operation for the Pentagon? That place was marked off months ago for being unstable. They wanted to try to preserve it because it was done very extravagantly. The creators even dug underground to make a dungeon and stuff to go with all the tires they used to build it, which is why I think it won the engineering club the competition that year."

Ingrid replied, "Exactly, it's marked off for being unstable, so no one would think of going into it to check it out. The specs show it was designed with a dungeon and numerous rooms. That dungeon could hold Fillmore since we haven't been able to find him anywhere and the other rooms could be used to conduct all the planning the Pentagon has obviously done."

"It's a good theory Third, I'll head over to Mitchell's office and get a task force to go check it out. We need to have some bodies for possible rescue if the tires start falling," replied Vallejo

Ingrid quickly replied, "But going by the book is going to buy the Pentagon time. As secret as we've been so far, the Pentagon has found out our plans and has made counter measures. We just need to…"

"That's enough Third," said Wayne. "Vallejo is going by the book like he should. The rules and regulations were made for a reason."

Vallejo started to say, "Ingrid, I don't need you going off halfcocked on this. For the time being just prepare for…" Vallejo never finished as Ingrid just tossed her badge over to his desk. Before anyone could say anything she was out of the office heading towards Fillmore's desk to grab her bag. As she reached down to grab her backpack, a book was dropped on the desk. Ingrid looked at the book's title: Safety Patrol Official Guidelines, Regulations, and Mission Overview Twelfth Edition.

Wayne softly spoke. "Ingrid, Fillmore always told me how smart you were. He told me how he could trust you with anything. If you go through with this, there is a good chance Fillmore's best shot at being innocent until proven guilty is going to be gone. Being overzealous isn't going to show impartiality. It will only…" Wayne trailed off as he saw Ingrid pick up the book. She calmly tossed it out the open window behind Fillmore's desk. Ingrid walked out of the Safety Patrol Office and Glee Club Annex. Everyone in the office had witnessed Ingrid's actions. Emily Kinzey walked over to Wayne as he stared out the window at his book lying in the dumpster below.

Emily said with concern in her voice, "Wayne?"

Wayne just stood there thinking. _She threw out my book. _An amused grin appeared on Wayne Leggit's face.

* * *

Ingrid climbed down the tires of one of the castle's air shafts that lead to the underground portions of the castle. As she reached the end of the shaft, she repositioned herself so she could poke her head out to survey the area. She saw shadows starting to come around a corner and quickly drew her head back into the tunnel of tires. Luckily she wasn't casting any shadows herself. As Ingrid stared out the opening, she saw two figures she recognized and heard their conversation.

"Zero said he should have replacement voice distortion masks for us today. We should be able to meet with everyone else once we pick them up," said Sonny.

"When was Zero supposed to drop them off here?" asked Penny.

"Zero should be here within the hour. At any rate, I need to give our guest his bottle of water and see if he's ready to talk yet."

The pair started to walk away from the shaft at this point. Ingrid quickly made her way to the ground from the shaft and starting to tail the criminal pair. As she looked around the next corner, she noticed it gave way to a huge room with a large pentagon shaped table in the center. Behind the table, a wooden dungeon cell could be seen. With Penny and Sonny's backs to her, she ducked back behind the corner and started to climb up the wall. When she reached the ceiling she started to crawl along the ceiling towards the cell. When Ingrid got within earshot, she stopped and just listened to the conversation going on in the cell.

"Fillmore you could at least show some gratitude for me bringing you a sandwich yesterday to go with your water and just tell us where you hid the flash drive."

Ingrid never heard Fillmore replied, but even from where she was she could hear his stomach growl. Sonny's next words confirmed what Ingrid thought.

"This silent treatment is getting old Fillmore. You could end all of this by just telling us where you hid Project Trust."

Penny tried to get Fillmore to react by adding a jibe. "Come on Fillmore, we're giving you more of a chance than you ever gave me."

Ingrid fist clenched around a tire she was gripping. _She did not just say that. Fillmore risked his badge to rescue her when she was capture by Winston Connor. Then when Fillmore found out he had been played because she had been in on it, but was trying to go into business for herself, Fillmore gave her the chance to turn herself in. I still remember when Fillmore came in the next morning and asked if Penny had come in. I teased him about how the office wouldn't make for a good date location. Fillmore had me worried when he replied with a solemn serious face and asked me to come with him as he started to head out of the office. He explained everything on the way. By the time we got there, she was about ready to ship the Cal Ripken cards out to make a tidy profit. She didn't take Fillmore seriously when he said "don't make me come get you." We actually had to chase her down. I cornered her and Fillmore caught her. Penny actually had the nerve to say, "I thought you had feelings for me." Fillmore's body language stayed cool as he said "You're a friend, and I hold my friends accountable." Even then, I could see in his eyes that it hurt him. They might have been friends on the verge of something more, but it died that day. I still don't know what I did, but Fillmore thanked me a little while after that for helping him move on. _Ingrid's thoughts ended as Sonny and Penny came back out the cell. As soon as they had closed the gate, Ingrid's foot slipped causing a piece of rubber to tear off and fall down. Ingrid knew she was about to be discovered with nowhere to run as she saw the clump of tire fall.

Penny looked up as she felt something fall on her head. "How did you get in here?!"

Sonny heard Penny speak and quickly looked in Penny's direction. Then he followed Penny's eyes. "Well, if it ain't Sunshine. Why don't you come on down? We can give you a seat in the dungeon here and maybe you can convince Fillmore here to talk."

Ingrid smirked and replied, "I don't think the seat would be too comfortable. It you just want Fillmore to say something this should help." She shouted, "Hey Fillmore, I know you said you wouldn't eat my dad out of house and home, but don't you think this is a bit extreme?"

Fillmore, a little weak from hunger, managed a small chuckle. He replied, "Just building up my appetite for that lizard soup or was I supposed to eat the rattlesnake meat."

"Well he can still speak after all," Sonny commented.

"Anyways, while we wait for you tire out and fall from the ceiling, why don't you humor us. I knocked you out cold so you obviously didn't see where Fillmore hid Project Trust, but you can tell us were Fillmore hid you that night? ," added Penny.

Ingrid stared coldly at Penny as Third remembered being knocked out from behind that night. "Apparently you aren't very smart. He hid me amongst the weight bags backstage. You mean you couldn't find me after all those hours even if there aren't many places to hide a body there."

Sonny replied coldly, "Well finding you wasn't very important. Fillmore had the flash drive and saw our faces so he was more important to chase down."

Ingrid was a little touched as she realized Fillmore had made himself the bait to draw them away from her that night. Her eyes opened a little more as she got an idea. She stared down at Sonny and Penny just waiting outside the cell. Gripping the tires hard, Ingrid used her boots to rip some of the tires from the structure so they fell towards Sonny and Penny. The pair quickly moved aside as the tires were falling. During the commotion Ingrid jumped down from the ceiling and landed onto the pile of tires on the ground to cushion her fall. As soon as Ingrid landed, she bolted for the cell gate to pick the lock. Right as she pulled a paper clip out of her pocket, she heard Fillmore yell, "Ingrid! MOVE!"

She quickly jumped to the side in time to see that Sonny had been right behind her. Quickly analyzing the situation, Ingrid saw that Penny was halfway between the two exits effectively blocking both escape routes, while Sonny was ready to fight Ingrid to capture her too. _Guess it's time to see if those self-defense classes are going to pay off. _Ingrid managed to block the first few blows Sonny threw at her, but got thrown off balance as a dirt clod hit her leg. After she had fallen to the ground in front of the Fillmore's cell, Sonny said, "Nice throw their Penny. Now we just need to get her tied up too and then…"

He was interrupted as Penny said from the exit way, "What is he doing?"

Sonny, Penny and Ingrid all looked into the cell. With his hand tied behind his back, Fillmore had picked up the wooden chair in similar fashion to a life. He was now spinning in circles has he continuously hopped with his feet tied together.

"Che, I thought he might try to carry the chair with him, but he just looks stupid spinning around like that," commented Sonny.

_He's building up inertia, but what for? He's tied to the chair, so about the only thing he might do, would be…_ Ingrid quickly buried her face in her arms as she realized what Fillmore was about to do. As soon as her head was covered, Fillmore threw the chair towards the cell's wooden bars. The bars shattered as the chair broke through taking Fillmore with it. The chair and Fillmore collided with Sonny and sent the pair into the pile of tires. Sonny got up slowly as was obviously bruised by the collision. He looked over to see Ingrid had untied Fillmore. Fillmore clearly took the worst of the collision due to his weakened state, but was still conscious and currently leaning on Ingrid's shoulder as she supported his weight.

Penny meandered over from her spot near the exits, "Well Fillmore stopped you from being captured for the moment, but he's in no shape to help you anymore. You won't get past Sonny and me if you try to carry Fillmore with you. Then again you aren't going to get out of here even if you leave Fillmore behind."

Even though logically Ingrid had a chance to escape if she left Fillmore right now, she couldn't bring herself to even try. She stared coldly at Penny, while at the same time clenched the hand that wasn't helping to support Fillmore into a fist.

Sonny coughed from dust he had inhaled when the gate broke as he stood up from the rubble he was lying in. "I always said Fillmore was the best. Even when he can't win, he makes it as hard as possible to deal with him. You seem to enjoy being his equal when it comes to being a pain to deal with sunshine. That's all pointless now though. I think you two have reached the end of your rope."

Suddenly a lasso encircled Sonny and was yanked tight. Sonny quickly fell back to the ground. Ingrid and Penny looked over and followed the rope towards the left exit and saw a safety patroller at the other end. Fillmore noticed too and wisecracked, "I didn't know you Tennessee boys knew how to use a lasso."

"I might not be very good at it, but I'd say it worked," replied Wayne Leggit. Coming in from behind Wayne was Emily Kinzey, Tehama, and Anza. Anza quickly ran over to the other exit cutting off the other escape route. Seeing that she was cornered Penny quickly gave up and went to her knees as Tehama and Emily came over to get her.

Wayne explained to Ingrid, "Vallejo, Frank, and O'Farrell headed over to Head Commissioner Mitchell's office to tell him the new leads. We decided to cut out the middle man and just get over here as fast as we could and just take our punishments later." As the group finished corralling the two culprits, another figure came in through the exit Wayne had entered.

Andy Walnut said, "After witnessing what I did, I'd say I owe Officers Third and Fillmore an apology. Probably need to give one to Vallejo too. At any rate, I get what Wayne and the other safety patrol officers were doing now."

Ingrid raised a suspicious eyebrow and asked, "Why are you here? I thought you didn't care for anyone with a record. "

"I don't. I was working with a club to figure out how to stabilize this place to investigate it. The tire rubber from your desk explosion didn't fit any bomb parts, so it seemed logical that is might be a clue to the location of the bombardier. Before those plans could be figured out, I saw this group running recklessly into this structure and followed along. I caught up to Wayne and was about to barge in here, but he asked me to wait." Assistant Commissioner Walnut pulled out a tape recorder. "I'm glad I honored that request because Ms. Madrid over there was running her mouth about Fillmore stopping them. I got enough evidence on this recorder from Mr. Lombard clearly stating you and Officer Fillmore were working against them. Just because I don't care for delinquents doesn't mean I will unjustly convict them of crimes they didn't commit. That wouldn't be justice at all, and justice is my priority here. Now get those two out of here."

As the group started to leave, Wayne came over to help Ingrid with Fillmore. Ingrid asked, "What made you change your mind?"

"You are the second person to ever throw out my book."

"Let me guess, Fillmore was the first."

Wayne simply nodded. An echo of footsteps could be heard coming down the pathway the others had not headed towards. Thinking quickly Fillmore spoke, "leave me here in the pile and hide in the other exit corridor." Ingrid was about to object but Fillmore said, "We might get the mastermind if you do this. Hurry up before whoever it is gets here."

Ingrid quickly but gently let Fillmore down and bolted with Wayne to get out of sight. By this point the others had made their way to the exit. Wayne and Ingrid quickly grabbed them and shuttled them into the corridor as they informed them of what was happening. Walnut quickly whispered, "Tehama and Anza, take these two back to headquarters, we'll stay here." The pair nodded and escorted Penny and Sonny further down the corridor.

A cloaked figure emerged from the other corridor with a mask the had the number zero on it covering his face. The figure was carrying two masks and a piece of paper between the two masks. Upon seeing the pile of rubble by Fillmore's cell, the figure tossed the masks with the piece paper onto the pentagon table. Upon approaching Fillmore, the safety patrol officer heard the figure say, "You're a real idiot. Even with no one watching you, you couldn't figure out that breaking out would injure yourself."

Suddenly Fillmore jumped up and grabbed the figure's arm. "I'm guessing since you're Zero that spoke with Sonny and Penny earlier that you're the brains behind the Pentagon."

Zero grunted in reply and he fought to get Fillmore off of him. He managed to shake Fillmore off, Fillmore managed to grab onto Zero's gloved hand and yanked the glove off. At this point Walnut, Wayne, Emily, and Ingrid came out of the corridor. Emily and Wayne covered the exits as Andy and Ingrid started running towards Fillmore. Zero noticing this started to bolt for the table to grab the masks. Walnut noticing this broke off from heading towards Fillmore and arrived at the pentagon table. Zero turned around to run back towards the pile of tires next to Fillmore. Fillmore managed to grab a hold of the arm that had Zero's gloved hand. Zero used his other hand and pushed on Fillmore's face. Fillmore running low on stamina at this point fell back down but grabbed onto Zero's cloak. Zero jumped up towards the hole that was made when Ingrid had caused the tires to fall earlier. In doing so, the cloak tore near the waistline. Zero escaped as part of the cloak ripped off, but not without the four safety patrollers present witnessing part of an orange safety patrol sash worn by the escapee.

Fillmore just rested on top of the tire pile as he gripped the piece of cloak he had torn off. "Almost had him," mumbled Fillmore to himself.

"Don't worry Fillmore, we'll get him," Ingrid said softly as she came over to where Fillmore was sitting. She knelt next to him and asked," Do you think you can walk out of here?"

"I can try," he replied. Suddenly a loud rumble could be heard from above. Ingrid and Fillmore looked up and saw the hole Zero had escaped through starting to collapse as a mountain of tires was falling. Fillmore shoved Ingrid with all the strength he had left so she tumbled and rolled down the current pile of tires. As Ingrid rolled, the tires fell down and buried Fillmore underneath.

Ingrid quickly gained control of her momentum and stopped. Looking back she couldn't see Fillmore, but she saw tires continuing to fall where Fillmore and she had been. Concern and worry were evident in her voice as she shouted "Fillmore!"

* * *

Ingrid sat in a chair next to Fillmore's bed in the nurse's office. It had been about forty-five minutes since they got Fillmore out from under the mountain of tires. It took while because they had to make sure the more tires didn't fall as they removed the tires from the pile. Vallejo had been over briefly to give Ingrid her badge back.

Wayne had taken the brunt of the heat from Head Commissioner Mitchell for over stepping his boundaries, but Assistant Commissioner Walnut made Mitchell back off given the evidence Andy had been able to get. Even with the Head Commissioner backing off, Wayne and Emily were advised by Andy to not help with the case anymore. So Wayne and Emily went to help set-up for the National Safety Patrol Convention and left the rest of the case the of safety patrollers of Z High School. Tehama and the others were currently scouring the dungeon for any more clues.

Ingrid's head quickly turn and she defensively watched the door to the nurse's office open. She readied herself to not let anyone near Fillmore who hadn't been present for his rescue. With the torn cloak revealing a safety patrol badge, she couldn't bring herself to trust anyone who wasn't there except for Vallejo, O'Farrell, and Frank Bishop.

"Easy Ingrid, it's just me," replied Anza as he walked in. "Walnut assigned me to bodyguard duty here. Right now Fillmore is the only one who knows were Project Trust is, so there's a good chance he would be a target right now."

"I figured," Ingrid replied. Her eyes went back to the unconscious Fillmore.

"How is he?" asked Anza.

"The nurse said he's probably a little malnourished since he has only a sandwich to eat these last few days. The exhaustion from that led him to easily being knocked out by the tires falling. She said he should come to in a hour or two, but it's going to be a few days until he gets his strength back." Ingrid shook her head and said, "Idiot, you should have just jumped out of the way. Even jumping into me would have worked."

"Ingrid, he's going to be alright."

"I know. He probably didn't even have the strength to move his legs so he just pushed me. I just wish he wake up," Ingrid said as she stroked Fillmore's hand with her own. Trying to change the topic away from Fillmore's health, Ingrid asked, "What clues have we've been able to pick up?"

Anza smiled. "Apparently that Zero person, left a list on that pentagon table with those two masks. The bottom of that list had a bunch of names for people the pentagon could hire to do dirty work, like Colby Bosworth and Nicky Larkin. Basically they were small fry who couldn't be connected to the big fish. At the top of that list though we saw clearly that the Pentagon is a group with five members instead of one individual."

"Do we have names?"

"The members apparently only referred to themselves by number. This Zero character had the full list and just put down the word 'me' beside his codename. The rest of the list had names beside the numbers though. It started with Sonny Lombard as One and Penny Madrid as Two. It even included their function of special operations. Johnny Nevada was listed as Four. He was the main financier."

"So he could have enough smoits for that syrup in the snow cone ice that blew up my desk. And the orange in the boat at the lookout that got busted was probably a bunch of smoits," replied Ingrid. She swiftly added, "Wait, who would have been Three?"

"I wanted to save that one. He's an old buddy of yours. He's responsibility was to make it difficult to get search warrants for certain operations and to apply public pressure on the safety patrol from student council."

Ingrid eyes quickly narrowed in recognition. "You mean it was…"

"Yeah, it was Brad Parnassus. In addition to this list, his goose is cooked because we found a hidden drawer in that Pentagon Table that had a binder of all the Pentagon's activities since its inception and who did what for each operation. Being very meticulous and detailed helped them from not getting caught for so long, but it preserved a lot of evidence for us to eventually get our hands on. All the hard evidence to take down Parnassus was in that binder. The four Pentagon members have already all been rounded up. But we have nothing on Zero, the mastermind behind this entire thing." Anza retorted.

Ingrid quietly spoke so her voice wouldn't carry outside the room. "Not completely true. We know Zero is a safety patroller."

Anza depressingly replied, "Yeah, but we have no way of identifying who it would be. We have a traitor, but have no way to figure out who it is. The glove Fillmore grabbed was one of the standard issues from the safety patrol office when we have to move debris from a crime scene. Multiple safety patroller fingerprints were on the inside of the glove. We only know it wasn't anyone who was there when we first caught up to you and Fillmore. "

"Knowing the other four all had a grudge against Fillmore doesn't narrow it down much either. Sonny hated Fillmore for deciding to change and walk the straight and narrow. Penny held a grudge because Fillmore didn't let her off the hook for the counterfeit baseball scheme. Johnny Nevada's smoits gambling operations have slowed down with Fillmore getting most of his customers in detention for other crimes. Parnassus hates Fillmore because of the foiled plan to frame me for the stink bomb back at X," commented Ingrid.

"Too bad you couldn't see through Zero's mask. It would have all been wrapped up by now," Anza said in a light hearted tone to try to lighten up the situation a little bit.

"See?" Ingrid asked as her hand went to head as her photographic memory was acting up. Before Anza could ask what she was thinking about, Ingrid stood up. "Crackers, that's it."

"What's it?"

"I don't have time to explain. Go get Tehama here and bring some fingerprinting equipment back with you. I'll stay here and watch over Fillmore."

Anza quickly left room and headed down the hall to Safety Patrol Headquarters and Glee Club Annex.

* * *

"So we have an unknown rogue officer, Project Trust still missing before the wonder twins are supposed to introduce this ground breaking database, and the only person who knows where it is happens to be unconscious in the nurse's office. Of course I'm not happy about getting most of the Pentagon in custody! Getting that flash drive back is still going to make or break everything," Head Commissioner Mitchell angrily stated. "That doesn't even include how this past operation didn't even follow proper regulations and procedures. This wasn't like cutting an unapproved deal to get some information. This could have had serious safety ramifications."

"Calm down," replied Assistant Commissioner Walnut. "You seem to be taking this a bit too personally. Try to be a little more professional."

Tehama walked into the room before the conversation started to get out of hand. Mitchell spat out, "You better have a good reason to come and interrupt this meeting Officer Tehama." Tehama walked over and handed a piece of paper to Vallejo. Before Tehama could speak, Anza called from the doorway.

"Tehama, I was told you were over here. I need you to come with me with your fingerprinting materials."

Tehama addressed the commissioners, "I think that letter is almost self-explanatory. I couldn't figure out the ending, but it's the best we got." With that, she left to get her fingerprinting equipment. As she exited the room she asked Anza, "what's the rush?"

Anza whispered back, "I don't know. Ingrid had her photographic memory act up and told me to come get you."

"Then let's get going," Karen replied back.

Back in commissioner's office, the door was shut by Andy as Tehama exited the office. As Walnut turned back around he asked, "Well Vallejo, what does it say?"

Vallejo started to read.

**I am writing this letter in hopes that it will be found when the safety patrol finds me here in this dungeon. I am hiding it in the cell because I don't think they will look for it here. They will only take away the pen and paper they find on me. After I conclude this letter, I will try to break out, but if I don't succeed this letter can be used to find Project Trust. I will only give a clue to its location so if my captors find this letter; they still won't know where I put it.**

**Project Trust is hidden inside Fred Durst.**

"That's all the letter says," said Vallejo when he had finished. Vallejo put the letter on the table for the others to quickly read.

"That doesn't make any sense," commented Walnut. He quickly typed on his laptop. "Hmm, it says here Fred Durst is a known musician and rapper. There's no scholarly substance to him at all, so the school wouldn't have any structures or even rooms names after him."

The Head Commissioner coldly asked, "Walnut, who's the smartest kid in school."

Before Vallejo could angrily respond, Walnut spoke. "The smartest kid at Z High School is Brad Parnassus. His scores are slightly better than Ingrid's scores."

Vallejo said," Good we can show this to Third. Aside from being smart, she's known Fillmore for a long time now. If anyone can get inside Fillmore's head and understand what he meant, she would the one."

"I'm not going to trust this to someone more focused on saving her partner than solving a case that affects all the safety patrols nationwide," replied Mitchell with obvious disgust in his voice. He picked up the phone. "I'm calling Principal Folsom. We don't have much time and I need to approval to make a deal with Parnassus." As he dialed he thought, _I am not going to let this all fall apart._

* * *

Tehama and Anza entered the nurse's office. As Tehama made her way toward Ingrid, Karen asked, "What's up?"

Ingrid genuinely smiled as she said, "When Zero and Fillmore were struggling, Zero wound up shoving Fillmore in the face with his ungloved hand."

Anza replied, "But we can't exactly lift fingerprints off Fillmore's face."

"No you can't, but Zero's thumb didn't touch Fillmore's face. He pressed it against Fillmore's glasses. We took off Fillmore's glasses after the nurse looked him over, but the glasses haven't been wiped," replied Ingrid with a triumphant look on her face.

"So we match that print with the safety patroller files at headquarters…" commented Tehama.

"And we have our traitor's identity," finished Ingrid.

Tehama popped open her fingerprinting kit. "Alright then, let me have those glasses."

* * *

Fillmore's letter and a summarized biography of Fred Durst were placed on the table in front of Parnassus in the interrogation room. The Head Commissioner spoke. "Here's the deal Parnassus. Folsom will approve you getting immunity from this Pentagon incident if you figure out where Fillmore hid the database. None of this will touch your permanent record, BUT only if the location you give us is correct and we retrieve Project Trust in time for the National Safety Patrol's Convention opening ceremony tomorrow."

Parnassus replied, "Such generous terms. What happens if I say no and you can't find it?"

As much as Vallejo hated seeing Parnassus get away again, he saw how high the stakes were. _We should have just asked Ingrid, but we're running out of time here_. Vallejo retorted, "Then those aspirations you've had for college since middle school are destroyed here and now Parnassus."

Seeing that his bluff was called, Parnassus said, "I guess I shouldn't refuse such a generous offer." After looking at the letter and biography, Parnassus came to his conclusion. He gave his answer to the three commissioners present while including an insult. "The safety patrol must really be full of simpletons. Obviously Fillmore hid it inside the school's music studio."

Mitchell said, "Vallejo you keep an eye on Parnassus. Walnut you come with me. We need to grab some officers and go search the music studio."

* * *

Right before Mitchell and Walnut left for the music studio with a group of safety patrollers, Tehama walked into the office. She asked, "Commissioner Walnut, can I speak with you for a moment?"

Mitchell spoke with annoyance in his voice, "Go ahead Walnut. Just catch up to us when you're done." The group of officers left with the Head Commissioner. After they had exited the office, Walnut said, "What did you need me for Tehama?"

Tehama put her case down and opened it up. After lifting the paper that had Zero's fingerprint she said, "This is a fingerprint we got off Fillmore's glasses. It should match the safety patroller who is also Zero for the Pentagon."

Taking the paper, Andy Walnut asked, "This is from when Zero got into that scrap with Fillmore right before Zero escaped?" Tehama nodded. Walnut continued, "Okay I'll plug this into the fingerprint database and see who it pulls up." He and Tehama quickly went over to Andy's office. Walnut scanned the fingerprint into the computer and the program started searching. As it scanned Walnut asked, "Why didn't you just ask for me over the radio?"

"For the same reason Anza came and got me in person. We didn't want to risk tipping off that we might have found something to whoever the leak in the safety patrol is."

"That's a solid strategy," he replied. At that moment, the computer beeped as it had found a match. The Assistant Commissioner's eyes widened in horror and realization as the pair of officers looked at the computer screen. "Tehama get to the nurse's office and get Third and Anza. I'm going to grab Vallejo. Meet us at the Music Studio as quickly as you can, we have to hurry before it's too late." They quickly rushed out of the Safety Patrol Headquarters. Left on the monitor screen was the picture of fingerprint and the matching safety patroller: the picture of Head Commissioner Fred Mitchell.

* * *

Mitchell overlooked the Music Studio after every square inch had been searched only to turn up nothing. He said, "Alright everyone, clear out. Obviously Parnassus was wrong, so we'll have to try searching elsewhere once we can get a better idea where Project Trust might be." After the officers had left, Mitchell exasperatedly said, "Where did you hide it Fillmore? If it wasn't for you this whole thing would have been over with by now!"

"I guess it's a good thing the National Safety Patrol Convention got move to this school. Otherwise Fillmore wouldn't have been around to stop you," said Walnut.

Mitchell quickly turned around, "What do you mean by that?"

"He means you're busted," Ingrid said coldly as she and other patrollers came in from behind Walnut. "You may not have notice but when you fought with Fillmore back in the Black Rubber Castle you shoved your ungloved hand on Fillmore's face. When you did that, your thumb pushed against Fillmore's glasses and left a fingerprint. It's over. Whatever plans you had for Project Trust and framing Fillmore, both are history."

"WHY YOU!" Mitchell shouted as he lunged at Ingrid. Mitchell was caught from behind by Anza, who immediately put the soon to be former Head Commissioner into a lock he learned in bodyguard training.

As Anza held him, Vallejo asked, "Why did you do it Fred?"

"Guess there's no point in keeping it a secret. I was going to make a huge profit off the delinquents in this and any school I wanted to. By making knowing the strengths and weaknesses of officers, I could help them plan very successful schemes. They would make as much money as they could off their operations and I would get a cut when I let them know things would be getting too hot. To maximize time for the operation, all I would have to do would be to pair off officers who wouldn't make good matches. Play both sides of the same coin. It would pay off so much better than having a blatantly corrupt force that would cause crusaders to push for reform."

"That's just disgusting," Ingrid replied.

Mitchell retorted, "Sorry to hear you say so. I thought with you being so smart, you would have seen the benefit in something like that. I even hoped I would woo you and eventually invite you to the Pentagon. You have quite a nice figure, but despite your disregard for safety patrol regulations, you don't have the right frame of mind needed to recognize such an opportunity. Too bad, you would have been a nice score to have for a night or maybe two."

Ingrid quickly landed an uppercut to Mitchell's jaw. Tehama immediately restrained her friend as Walnut spoke, "Mitchell, keep you lewd suggestions to yourself."

"Pfft, you're lucky she didn't harm me any. I can't prove any unprofessionalism that way."

"I'd say you're lucky Tehama restrained her or else you might not have been able to vocalize any complaints," Vallejo commented.

Anza added, "One thing I don't get is: why did you want to frame Fillmore? The other four Pentagon members had personal grudges. I don't really see a reason for you."

"Of course you wouldn't. Even though my cousin was stupid about it, he understood the benefits of using the safety patrol and keeping his own little profits on the side. He had Macluhan Middle School's safety patrol running beautifully. He couldn't even get in trouble for circumstantial evidence since he dad was principal there. Fillmore ruined all of it and in the end before he left to come back here that Wayne fella wound up being name Patrol Sherriff in place of my cousin."

"So it was revenge?" asked Tehama.

"No, I knew from my cousin's mistake that I needed to keep Fillmore from meddling. I figured he would somehow find out about my plans to steal Project Trust. Therefore by framing Fillmore, no one would trust the ex-delinquent enough to try to find him. Instead they would only focus on solving the case, which I could work around by knowing all the procedures they would follow." Mitchell added coldly as he stared at Ingrid, "It almost worked except one of you just didn't know when to quit."

Ingrid smirked as she replied, "Thanks."

"Let's get this guy down to headquarters and book him already. We still have work to do after we get this guy to the holding room," Vallejo interjected.

* * *

Anza walked out of the holding room to see Walnut talking with Vallejo.

"I have to say, a lot of my beliefs about the safety patrol and delinquents have been challenged today. I've got a lot of thinking to do after we wrap this case up for sure," Walnut said to Vallejo.

"Don't worry Andy, when those beliefs change you just have one thing to worry about," replied Vallejo.

"What's that?"

Anza interjected, "Folsom constantly coming down on you about the budget, especially with Fillmore on duty."

Everyone in the office laughed a little, but the mood quickly went solemn. "Fillmore's still in the nurse's office isn't he?" asked Walnut.

"Yeah, Ingrid's in there right now. She wanted to be there when he woke up, so she went there instead of coming back here with us," answered Tehama.

Vallejo exclaimed, "That's it! Tehama, in my office there is the letter you found. Go get it and meet us at the nurse's office. Ingrid might be able to figure it out."

As the group left for Ingrid's location, Walnut said, "I hope you're right Vallejo. I heard Chuck and Chippy Chestnut's schedules cleared and they are going to be here to present their program to the convention right after the opening ceremonies tomorrow morning."

"I still disagree with how the program ignores how officers knowing each other can make a huge difference too. Regardless, this is our best chance at wrapping this case up," replied Vallejo.

* * *

Ingrid carefully read, "Project Trust is hidden inside Fred Durst."

"We don't even have an idea what Fillmore means by Fred Durst," Tehama commented.

"Crackers!" Ingrid exclaimed.

Walnut raised an eyebrow and replied, "That actually made some sense to you?"

Ingrid closed her eyes to focus on all the Z High School maps she had gone over with Fillmore as the pair had planned the Project Trust transfer. Third open her eyes and said, "He hid it at the Z High School Miniature Golf Courses. The eighth hole on the third course set is designed to imitate a vegetable garden. The flash drive will be inside one of the plastic eggplants."

Without questioning anything, Vallejo ordered, "Tehama and Anza, go grab Frank and O'Farrell. Then head on over the golf course and find that flash drive."

Tehama and Anza left the nurse's office. After they had left Vallejo said, "Third you stay here for when Fillmore gets up. It shouldn't be too long now. Walnut and I will head over to Folsom's office and start wrapping this case up."

* * *

Anza, Tehama, Bishop, and O'Farrell were looking through the plastic eggplant patch at the sixth hole. Danny asked "So um, how do we figure out which one he hid it in?"

Frank Bishop commented, "Most of these eggplants have been damaged from stray golf balls. Are the any that haven't been damaged?"

Anza kneeled down and looked over the eggplants. "They all look pretty much the same…wait." He then pointed, "Look at the stem on that one. All the other eggplant stems curve and meticulously point in the same direction. That one is off by about a half an inch or so."

Tehama picked up the eggplant Anza pointed at. She pushed slightly on the stem and it rotated. She continued to spin it and the top of the eggplant came off like a lid on a jar. Reaching inside, Tehama pulled out a flash drive.

"Score one for the…" Danny started to say.

Bishop put his hand on O'Farrell's should and interrupted, "O'Farrell, maybe you should save the puns for the open mike comedy social at the convention."

"Hmm, that's a good idea. It would help to have some unused material." O'Farrell replied.

* * *

After delivering the flash drive, Tehama said, "Glad that's over. Today has been exhausting with the speed at which this case picked up," as she gathered her things at her desk. She turned and said to Anza, "Hey Joey, I'm going to head over to the nurse's office to check on how things are one more time. Are you coming or do I just need to meet you outside?"

Before Anza could answer, Vallejo, who had overheard, interjected, "Don't worry about that Tehama. While you all were at the golf course, Fillmore came to. With his parents still out of town, Ingrid's sister came and picked them up. There won't be anyone there for you to see."

"Thanks chief," Tehama replied. As she walked out of the office with Anza she said, "So how long do you think it will be before we aren't the only couple on Safety Patrol?"

"At the latest, I'd say by the end of the National Safety Patrol Convention." After a pause he added, "Maybe by the beginning of the convention."

Tehama just giggled in response.

* * *

Ingrid walked into the guest room to check in on Fillmore. Seeing that he was awake as he was on top the guest bed staring at the ceiling, she asked, "So how are you feeling?" as she walked over to the bed and sat on the corner of it.

"Better, still hungry, but the doc did say I had to pace my eating," he replied as he sat up a little.

Ingrid genuinely smiled as she replied, "Don't worry; you'll be back to being mister six foot tall eating a twelve foot sub soon enough."

Fillmore shrugged his shoulders somewhat sheepishly. "What can I say? I still got it."

"That's more than Mitchell can say now."

"I'd hate to be in the ex-commissioner's shoes. Folsom is not the principal you want to see if you've given the school a bad name," commented Fillmore.

"He will deserve every bit of it. At least I won't have to deal with him trying to flirt with me outside school anymore. Ugh, that was almost unbearable."

"It could have been worse. You could have been stuck with me in that cell and he would have visited there," Fillmore tried to joke.

"I never did thank you for hiding me did I?" Ingrid said with some remorse.

"Don't be like that. If it wasn't for you, I'd probably still be in that cell."

Smiling again she replied, "Yeah I guess you're right. Anyways, what happened that night after I got knocked out?"

Fillmore told Ingrid everything he remembered, from Penny showing up with Ingrid unconscious through breaking the masks and getting Ingrid to safety to eventually hiding Ingrid and getting Sonny and Penny to chase him before he got knocked out himself after hiding the flash drive.

"The others would have found the flash drive by now. Using Fred Durst was a good decision," said Ingrid.

"Hey, a messed up eggplant got Joan of Arc to crack a smile the first time."

Ingrid actually laughed a little. She was feeling happier now than she had in days. Ingrid started to feel an urge to kiss Fillmore like she had back in the alley. That urge made her think about the kiss she and Fillmore had shared back in that alley about a week ago. Gathering her courage with the lighter mood, she hesitantly asked, "Fillmore…back in that alley…did you…well did you enjoy that kiss?" as Ingrid looked at her boots.

A little caught off guard by the question, Fillmore stared at the hands in his lap. _I knew I crossed a line when I did that. Well, I can't lie to her, so I might as well face the consequences. _Fillmore softly, but audibly replied after taking a deep breath, "I did. Even if it helped us get out of there safely, I should have apologized. All the stuff people like Checkmatey did that got on your nerves, and I did something even brasher…" As Fillmore started to ramble on about how he should have been more considerate of Ingrid's feelings on the matter, he didn't notice the look of sheer joy and relief on Ingrid's face. He also didn't notice Ingrid actual get off the corner of the bed and walk over to him as he continued to ramble. "…At the very least I should have…"

Fillmore stopped as he felt Ingrid's hand on his cheek. Before he could think about what just happened, Ingrid's lips crushed against his own. No words needed to be spoken. As Fillmore wrapped his arms around Ingrid, it was clear to the both of them that their relationship had changed. When it had crossed from friendship into the murky waters of potentially something more didn't matter. What mattered was that at this moment it moved from those murky waters into mutual acknowledgement of the feelings of love they shared for each other.

They broke the passionate kiss for need of air. Each could see the joy of contentment in the other's eyes. Both could also see how the events of the day had worn on them and that they both needed some rest. Fillmore took off his glasses and placed them on the nightstand next to the bed. Ingrid simply kicked off her boots and curled up next to Fillmore. They cuddled as they drifted off into sleep on top of the bed. A few minutes later Ariella came quietly into the room. Seeing her sister curled up with the man who cared as much for Ingrid as Ingrid did for him, Ariella couldn't stop the amused smile that appeared on her face. Ariella just went over to the closet. She opened it and took out a fleece blanket that she draped over the sleeping pair. As quietly as she had entered the room, Ariella left, leaving Cornelius and Ingrid to their peaceful slumber.

* * *

Fillmore, Ingrid, O'Farrell, Tehama, and Anza were all eating lunch in the Safety Patrol Headquarters the next day.

"This was a good idea Joey. Even with no school today, there's really not anywhere to sit in the cafeteria with all of the patrollers here for the convention," commented Tehama.

"Thanks. I'm just sorry all the work Third and Fillmore did on that Project Trust case wound up being kind of a waste of time."

O'Farrell added, "I never would have seen it coming though. The wonder twins using you two to show how the database works, then the database shows everyone that you two should make horrible partners because your skill sets are too similar."

"That was a little embarrassing for them wasn't it?" replied Ingrid. She continued as she looked lovingly at Fillmore, "I wouldn't say it was a complete waste though. I'm pretty happy with how a lot of things turned out."

Tehama asked, "besides your and Fillmore's new relationship, what things are you referring to?"

Ingrid responded, "Well, we found a corrupt commissioner and gave him his due justice and destroyed the most complex crime ring to ever be seen at any school."

Fillmore added, "Plus Wayne told me that the Convention is going to look at rewriting some of the Safety Patrol Regulations for a thirteenth edition. They are going to try incorporating some more flexibility into the guidelines and everything."

Anza added, "I even hear Walnut is helping out with that. That's quite a statement considering he's going be the new Head Commissioner with the new Assistant Commissioner being a former Commissioner at Gilby Middle School."

Tehama chimed in, "Yeah I guess Vallejo figures we give him enough headaches as is. But at least he knows the headaches we cause."

"Like Fillmore's effect on the safety patrol budget," Ingrid teased. This caused everyone to start laughing, even Fillmore.

"I do want to know one thing Ingrid. How in the world did you get eggplant from Fred Durst?" asked Tehama.

"Wow that goes all the way back to the first time I met Fillmore. It was back in X Middle School's 'Think About What You've Done' room." Ingrid started to tell the tale to show how only she and Fillmore would have thought about Fred Durst and eggplants.

**Fillmore walked into the room. "Some room; I practically spent my first two months of school here. Til that is my partner drafted me out of a life of delinquency and into the Safety Patrol," said Fillmore as he placed a cup of hot chocolate on Ingrid's desk and sat one right next to it with his own hot chocolate. **

**After Fillmore sat down, took a breath, and continued, "You're lying Ingrid. You didn't do it and I can prove it."**

"**So what? Listen they're going to expel me and I want out. Why would I wanna stay here?" Ingrid replied.**

"**I have an ATM tape that proves you weren't anywhere near the school when the stink bomb was set off," said Fillmore.**

"**And I have an eggplant that looks like Fred Durst. Did you hear me? I don't care. I just want to forget you people," replied an irritated Ingrid.**

**Fillmore stood up and pointed as he said, "Don't say 'you people' because this person's been out there busted his tail trying to clear your name. And what do I get in return? A messed up eggplant."**

**Ingrid smiled at how Fillmore would not take no for an answer. It was a little touching given how everyone had been either ignoring her or made their dislike of her known. He even paid enough attention to turn a small detail about an eggplant she had spouted off about back on her.**

**Seeing the smile, Fillmore teased, "Well what's that? Joan of Arc cracked a smile." Then seeing Ingrid softening, he said softly, "Ingrid you didn't do it. Don't take the fall because of a hundred fools who want easy answers. You've got a friend at X, me."**

**Ingrid replied, "You know; I was thinking. If one person other than the welcome wagon girl is the least bit nice to me by two o'clock, I wouldn't confess to something I didn't do."**

"**I would have been here earlier but, I was busy trying to clear a friend's name. Cornelius Fillmore," he replied as he stuck out his hand in friendship at the end.**

**Firmly shaking his hand, she replied, "Ingrid Third."**

"You remembered that pretty clearly for it seeming like it was so long ago," commented Anza.

"Yeah well, it had been a few years since anyone outside my family was nice to me. My family moved around a lot with my dad taking different adjunct professor jobs, so I never made a lot of friends. Then my mom died and I became the end of a lot of jokes around school for not only being different, but being different with added insults about my mom. After combining a stink bomb and a piñata, I wound up at a reform school in Nepal. Soon after finishing up in Nepal, my dad got a permanent professor job here and I went to X Middle School. A lot of good things have happened since," explained Ingrid, who just beamed with happiness as she talked about good things happening ever since.

Tehama said, "Sounds like you just met the right person at the right time."

"You can say that again," Ingrid replied.

"I have to say I'm happy you wound up living here," added Fillmore as he got up and started to gather up the trash from lunch.

Ingrid helped him and as they walked over to the trash can, she gave Fillmore a quick peck on the cheek. Fillmore looked at her green eyes, shining brightly like emeralds and just smiled.

As the new couple started to walk out of Safety Patrol Headquarters and Glee Club Annex with the others, O'Farrell said, "Fillmore, thank you for buying the rest of us lunch."

"It was my pleasure Danny. It was nice to catch up with everyone since I've been either in a dungeon or enjoying some recuperating time. Beside my lunch was already paid for, so it was no trouble at all to cover all of you compared to what I eat."

Anza, O'Farrell and Tehama looked at Fillmore with a questioning look on their faces. Ingrid giggled a little and said, "Don't worry about it. Come on let's get going, the social events should be starting soon."

They all exited the office. As they walked, Fillmore put his arm around Ingrid and the couple enjoyed being with their friends and each other for a little bit of down time before whatever case would befall them next. As they were walking down the hall Ingrid whispered in Fillmore's ear, "That was cruel though not to warn him, especially since your appetite would be bigger than usual having not eaten regularly while you were jailed."

"Hey baby, I still know how to work things. It might not get us Chatmaster 3000 walkie-talkies, but I need to stay in practice."

Ingrid gave Fillmore a quick kiss and said, "Maybe the wonder twins had it right. As partners, we're probably bad for the health of any commissioner's lungs."

* * *

In the Commissioner's Office, Andy Walnut and Horatio Vallejo were unwinding from the first day of the National Safety Patrol Convention.

"At least there's only four more days of the convention," Vallejo commented.

"Yeah…hey Vallejo, why did you suggest I get stock up on water as Head Commissioner?"

"Simple, you need to make sure your throat stays moist from all the screaming you are going to wind up doing, especially when it comes to Fillmore."

An envelope passed through the door's mail slot. Andy walked on over and picked it up. Vallejo asked, "What's that?"

Walnut replied, "As a small token of thanks, I told the cafeteria to just charge Fillmore's lunch today to the Safety Patrol Account we use for the hot chocolate and case specific food if needed." Seeing Vallejo look worried as he stared at the envelope, Walnut continued, "It's not that big a deal Vallejo. It's only one meal for one person. Going without food the way he did, it seemed like a fair offer." The Head Commissioner opened the envelope and took out the invoice.

* * *

Outside on the school grounds Ingrid and Fillmore were starting to walk home to Ingrid's house as the sunset on the first day of the National Safety Patrol Convention. As they looked up, they saw through a window Vallejo and Walnut conversing. Ingrid said as she wrapped her arms around him, "Come on, if it's a case, we'll just get it tomorrow. While I agree using moderation and consideration with public displays of affection, it's nice to spend time some affectionate time that's not in public too."

"Alright let's go," Fillmore replied. Before they started walking, Ingrid did share with Fillmore a moderately long kiss. As they broke it she said, "Love you Cornelius."

"Love you too Ingrid."

As they walked away from the school, they were too lost in their feelings of happiness, love, and contentment to hear Head Commissioner Andy Walnut scream.

"FILLMORE!"


End file.
